Adinath Lahiri

Adinath Lahiri was born on 24 August 1916.{{cite web | url=http://www.indianage.com/eventdate.php/24-August-1916 | title=24 August 1916 | publisher=Indianage.com | date=2016 | access-date=25 March 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160405154719/http://www.indianage.com/eventdate.php/24-August-1916 | archive-date=5 April 2016 | url-status=dead }} After completing his master's degree in geology and geochemistry from the University of Calcutta, he obtained Sir Palit Foreign Fellowship of the university and did his doctoral studies at the Imperial College of the University of London to secure a PhD, winning the Judd Memorial Prize for the best thesis in geochemistry.{{cite journal | url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/244064406 | title=Obituary: Adinath Lahiri |author1=S.Ranga Raja Rao |author2=Ian G.C. Dryden | journal=Fuel | date=January 1976 | volume=55 | issue=1 | pages=87 | doi=10.1016/0016-2361(76)90079-x| doi-access= | bibcode=1976Fuel...55...87R }} He started his career as a research associate at the Department of Chemical Technology at Imperial College in 1942, but joined the Royal Air Force during World War II to serve as a Scientific Officer and, later, as the Head of the Fuel and Oil Research Section at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough airfield. After the war was over, he returned to India, in 1945, to take up the position as the Assistant Director (Planning) at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) when he contributed to the planning and establishment of the Central Fuel Research Institute (CFRI), Dhanbad. He joined the institute after its inception as the Deputy Director and when the founder director, J. W. Whitteker left, he took over as the director in 1953 to stay with the institute till his superannuation in 1974.{{cite web | url=http://www.cfriindia.nic.in/60yrs.pdf | title=60 Years of CFRI | publisher=CFRI | date=2016 | access-date=25 March 2016 | pages=5 of 285 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160328191007/http://cfriindia.nic.in/60yrs.pdf | archive-date=28 March 2016 | url-status=dead | df=dmy-all }} In between, he also underwent training under a Summer Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science in 1950. After his retirement from CFRI, he joined the United Nations as an advisor and served in Chile when he died on 26 August 1975, two days after his 60th birthday, succumbing to a cardiac arrest.

Lahiri's research interests covered the fields of petrography, oxidation mechanisms, solvent extraction, surface chemistry of coal, catalysts and adsorbents and he was credited with several innovations in fuel technology, which earned him over 90 patents. His contributions have been reported in the development of beehive coke oven, process technologies for the isolation and recovery of useful chemicals from the byproducts of coal, process technologies for the production of resins and other compounds, and active carbon and ion exchangers for determination of water-based coal. He published his research and professional experiences by way of over 500 articles, Reaction of coals under plasma conditions: direct production of acetylene from coal,{{cite journal | title=Reaction of coals under plasma conditions: direct production of acetylene from coal |author1=Subhas C. Chakravartty |author2=Devaprasad Dutta |author3=Adinath Lahiri | journal=Fuel - Central Fuel Research Institute | date=January 1976 | volume=55 | issue=1 | pages=43–46 | doi=10.1016/0016-2361(76)90068-5|bibcode=1976Fuel...55...43C }} National Coal Development Corporation A New Approach,{{cite journal | url=http://cimfr.csircentral.net/1348/ | title=National Coal Development Corporation A New Approach | author=A. Lahiri | journal=Journal of Mines, Metals & Fuels | year=1961 | volume=9 | issue=10 | issn=0022-2755}} and Trekking on the Southern Bhutan Frontier counting among them.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R7zsPgAACAAJ | title=Trekking on the Southern Bhutan Frontier | publisher=Calcutta Geological Society | author=Adinath Lahiri | year=1937 | pages=5}} During his tenure with CFRI, he proposed the setting up of Central Mining Research Station for overcoming the coal mining issues faced in India and served as the director of the National Coal Development Corporation. In 1954, he proposed energy studies, a pioneering effort in India, and served the Indian Energy Survey Committee of 1965 and the National Fuel Policy Committee of 1974, as a member.

Lahiri was an elected Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Institute of Fuels (London) and the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), and served as a member of the INSA council from 1968 to 1970. In 1960, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri, the country's fourth-highest civilian honour.{{cite web | url=http://www.pib.nic.in/archive/docs/DVD_03/ACC%20NO%20012-BR/RAS-1960-01-26-4313.pdf | title=Notification | publisher=Gazette of India | date=1960 | access-date=25 March 2016}} Nine years later, in 1969, he was included in the Republic Day Honours list again, this time for India's third-highest civilian honour, the Padma Bhushan. Central Fuel Research Institute, the institute he helped found, have since renamed their conferencing facility as Adinath Lahiri Hall, in his honour.{{cite web | url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050422/asp/ranchi/story_4645928.asp | title=Green chemistry key to sustenance | publisher=The Telegraph | date=22 April 2005 | access-date=25 March 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409090419/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050422/asp/ranchi/story_4645928.asp | archive-date=9 April 2016 | url-status=dead }}

• De Nobili School, FRI
• Imperial College London
• List of Imperial College London people

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• {{cite web | url=http://www.sensonmedia.net/information/padmashri_awards_west_bengal.htm | title=Padma Shri Awards from West Bengal | publisher=Season Media | date=2016 | access-date=25 March 2016}}

{{PadmaBhushanAwardRecipients 1960–69}}

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Category:Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in science & engineering

Category:1916 births

Category:1975 deaths

Category:Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy

Category:Indian geochemists

Category:Scientists from West Bengal

Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri in trade and industry

Category:20th-century Indian inventors

Category:Indian officials of the United Nations

Category:University of Calcutta alumni

Category:Alumni of Imperial College London

Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni

Category:Council of Scientific and Industrial Research

Category:20th-century Indian chemists