Name Bidhu Das | ||
Bidhu Bhusan Das (also spelled Bidhubhusan Das, 11 April 1922 – 2 June 1999) was a public intellectual, scholar, professor and administrator from the state of Orissa, India. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he earned his B. Litt in 1948, and the universities of Columbia, Harvard, Patna and Utkal, Das taught and inspired two generations of students, who rose to become speakers of India's Parliament, Chief Justices of India's Supreme Court, Chief Ministers, cabinet and state ministers, administrators, physicians, artists, scholars, scientists, teachers, poets and intellectuals.
Bidhu Bhusan Das was Vice-Chancellor of Utkal University in 1977. He was for some time the director of the State Institute of Education in Bhubaneswar, Orissa. He was Director of Public Instruction in Orissa from 1968–80, and also professor of English at both Ravenshaw College in Cuttack and Tribhuvan University in Nepal. He was advisor to King Mahendra of Nepal under the Colombo Plan and a member of the Indian Aid Mission to Nepal. In that capacity, he wrote the entire set of statutes to set up Tribhuvan University in Nepal. The Institute of Physics in Bhubaneswar, which is nationally and internationally respected, was the brainchild of Bidhu Bhusan Das, and he set it up during his tenure as Director of Public Instruction, Orissa. A memorial lecture has been instituted in his honour and in 2013 was delivered at the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology by Dr. Shashi Tharoor, eminent diplomat, author, former Union Minister and Member of Parliament.