Died 27 May 2016 | ||
Bibhuti Bhusan Deo (18 April 1929 – 27 May 2016) was an Indian physicist.
Deo was born in village Sualo, of Kendujhar district in Odisha, India. He stood among the best ten positions in Matriculation and Intermediate Science (12th class equivalent). He graduated from Utkal University in 1950 as Best Graduate and Gold Medalist. He was a good sportsman. He completed his M.Sc. from Allahabad University in 1952. Dr. Deo had obtained his Ph.D from the University of Manchester, UK in 1958 with Professor L. Rosenfield (famous Physicist and editor Nuclear Physics) as his thesis supervisor.
Besides his continuous effort in Physics research, he was a teacher. He joined as Lecturer in Physics at Ravenshaw College, Cuttack before shifting to IIT, Kanpur (1962–1966) where he started his stream of Ph.D scholars (an-harmonic crystals, dilute impurity problem in crystals, antimagnetic systems, particle physics) and publishing papers in reputed journals like Physical Review. The technique of thermodynamic Green's function and Feyman diagrammatic method as applied to problems of Solid State Physics were first few works in India. He joined Carnegie-Mellon, Pittsburgh, USA (1966–1969) in teaching and research. In one of his landmark papers he collaborated with Professor R.E. Cutkosky of Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA to write a breakthrough paper in Physics especially "Cutkosky – Deo methodology" which is used in solving many problems in particle physics. He joined the Physics Department of Utkal University, Odisha where he conducted research in particle physics, condensed matter physics, theoretical liquid state, experimental acoustics, ultrasonic and computational physics simultaneously. He worked also in developing the Physics syllabus from Intermediate Science(+2 level) to M.Sc in Odisha.
During his Utkal University tenure, he visited various universities in USA and also worked for two years in Physics research at Max Planc, Munich, West Germany. He was head of the Department of Physics, Warden of PG Hostels and Chairman of Post Graduate Council and for a brief period officiated as Administrator in Utkal University. He was instrumental in formation of the Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar. He was the founder President of Orissa Physical Society to improve physicist teaching and disseminating physics research in the state. He brought the first computer to Odisha IBM-1130 and installed it in the Physics Department in 1970, establishing the Computer Centre & MCA Department of Utkal University paving a way in computation and related computer education in the state. As another novel approach, he was a pioneer to introduce General Relativity, Gravitation and Cosmology in M.Phil course at that time. His work in Physics is documented through numerous publications mostly in international journals.
Dr. Deo was the Vice Chancellor of Berhampur University from 1989 to 1992. He continued his research far after his retirement. Dr. Deo was the recipient of the Senior Scientist Award of Odisha Bigyan Academy (1999) and the recipient of D. Sc. (Honoris Causa) from North Orissa University.
He is also well known for his humane nature and generosity besides collaborating with various people establish their initial day careers. He and his family were fortunate in meeting various renown personalities including that in Switzerland with Maharishi Maheshjogi during his work in Germany and got introduced to TM (Meditation) and also with the then young Pandit Ravishankar. In another encounter, his compartment in a train was visited by P.C. Sorkar (Sr) who initially did not disclose his identity, but later they had a lot of talk on Mathematics.
He left behind his wife Shantilata (also a master's degree in Physics) behind him. His daughter Nivedita who also went into Physics research at Purdue, USA, Bangalore and Delhi University. Nivedita's husband Sanjay Jain is also a Physicist of repute . His eldest son Suvendu passed from BITS, Pilani and works in industrial development on Odisha ably supported by his wife Reema, a Post Graduate in Public Administration. His younger son Goutam passed from IIT, Kharagpur and Iowa, USA and presently does his teaching and research at IIT, Kanpur while his wife Brishti is also a chemical engineer and teaches at CSJM University, Kanpur.