Lesser known but equally important Indian Physicists – Part II: N.R. Sen, S.R. Khastgir and S.D. Chatterjee

There are several books and articles on the lives and sciences of C.V. Raman, M.N. Saha, S.N. Bose, J.C. Bose, and Homi J. Bhabha. A few years ago, I started writing on “lesser known but equally important Indian scientists”, like S.K. Mitra, B.B. Ray, D.M. Bose, K. Banerjee, and S.C. Sirkar. With S.C. Roy (formerly Editor-in-Chief of Science and Culture), I wrote on N.R. Sen, Bibha Chowdhuri, and Purnima Sinha. In ‘Part I’ of my talk (Dec. 16, 2022), I gave a short review on the lives and work of S.K. Mitra and B.B. Ray. Present communication, that is, Part II, focuses on N.R. Sen (founder of Calcutta School of Theory of Relativity), S.D. Chatterjee (‘Discoverer’ of nuclear fission and an expert on helium extraction from hot springs) and S.R. Khastgir (A pioneer of radio science and atmospherics). The talk is based on: N.R. Sen – Life and Science, R. Singh & S.C. Roy, S.D. Chatterjee – A scientist’s journey from tradition to modernity, R. Singh & S.C. Roy, and S.R. Khastgir – A Pioneer of Radio Physics and Atmospherics, R. Singh. These books were published by the German Publisher Shaker (https://www.shaker.de/de/content/catalogue/index.asp?ID=7&AID=3698&SHV=yes.)

About the Speaker:
R. Singh did B.Sc. (Non-Medical), and B.Ed. from the Guru Nanak Dev University. From the University of Oldenburg, Germany, he did ‘Diplom-Physik’ (five years degree course), and wrote a thesis on “Characteristics of Solar Radiation Photovoltaic Pyranometers Licor 200SZ and Matrix 1G”, which was later published by the Germany Shaker Publisher, Aachen 2012. He did his D.Sc. from the University of Hamburg and wrote his D.Sc. thesis “Nobel Laureate C.V. Raman’s work on light scattering”. Presently, he teaches and does research work. His fields of research are (i) Indian scientists and their interaction with Western scientists. (ii) Nobel Prizes, (iii) Science Education. As an independent researcher, at the University of Oldenburg, Physics Institute, he initiated the project “Lesser known but equally important Indian scientists.” Under the project, he wrote about: S.K., Mitra, K. Banerjee, S.C. Sirkar, D.M. Bose, S. Datta, S.R. Khastgir, and many more Indian scientists. R. Singh has written 41 books and more than 150 articles in international journals.

He is a Member of the Editorial Team: Sci. & Cult., Kolkata (Indian Science News Association), and Scientific Voyage, Kolkata. He was also a Member of the Editorial team of the Indian J. History of Science & Asian Journal of Physics. He is/was a Member of the European Physical Society (2009-2011), German Physical Society/History of Physics & Didactic of Physics  (1998-...), German Soc. Sci. Med. & Tech (2005-2020), Scientific Instrument Commission (1998-...), Education and Science Union (2005-...), European Society for the History of Science (2004-...), Astronomical Society (AG-HA), "Jugend forscht eV", Hamburg (2005-2019), Bulgarian Soc. Chem. Edu. & Hist. & Phil. Chemistry, Memeber of Selection Committee, Heinrich Boell Foundation (2014-2019), Honorary Member of the Society for Promotion of Science and Technology in India (2021-...). On the occasion of “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (75th Anniversary of Indian Independence),” he was invited by the Indian National Science Academy to deliver a lecture on “Bibha Chowdhuri”. Also, he was asked by Vigyan Bhawan to send the article. Recently, to deliver a lecture, he was invited by the Punjab State Council for Science & Technology in collaboration with the State Council of Educational Research & Training, Punjab University, IIT Ropar, IISER Mohali & Society of the Promotion of Science and Technology of India, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and Indian Institute of Technology (for more detail see, https://rajindersinghdr.hpage.com/confernces-etc.html).