Ramesh Chandra Majumdar

Early life

Majumdar started his studies in physics at Calcutta University, where he carried out an experiment that demonstrated the Raman effect in X-rays; this was published in Nature in 1931. He then moved to Allahabad University, where he wrote a research paper with Meghnad Saha. For the rest of his career, he would concentrate on theoretical physics. With Saha's encouragement, he went abroad for his doctoral studies, and obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Jena. During this period, he was a frequent visitor to Cambridge University, where his friend and collaborator Daulat Singh Kothari was working for his Ph.D. According to one source, Majumdar went to Cambridge, "arriving—it is said—on the doorstep of Lord Rutherford's home on a Sunday afternoon."

Career

On his return to India, Majumdar worked at the Bose Institute in Calcutta before joining the Physics Department (later renamed Department of Physics and Astrophysics) of the University of Delhi. Along with Daulat Singh Kothari, who was then head of the Department, he played an important role in building up the department by hiring key people to start new research groups.

In 1961, when Kothari was appointed chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), Majumdar took over as head of the department. During his tenure as head, the department was recognised as a Centre of Advanced Studies by the UGC. Majumdar later became pro-vice-chancellor of the university (1967–1969). Both as head and as pro-vice chancellor, he was responsible for new facilities being set up in the department. He held a visiting assignment at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in 1948. According to Piara Singh Gill, who held Majumdar in high regard as representing "the best traditions of scholarship", the Tata Institute authorities wanted Majumdar to stay on in Bombay, but he chose to return to Delhi. Majumdar was also a founding member of the Delhi University Teachers' Association.

Honours and awards

• Premchand Roychand Research Student, University of Calcutta
• Fellow, Indian National Science Academy (elected 1941)
• General secretary, The National Academy of Sciences, India (1953, 1954)
• Pro-vice-chancellor, University of Delhi

Books authored/edited by Ramesh Chandra Majumdar

• Bosons: Presented to Satyendra Nath Bose on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday, edited by R. C. Majumdar, Hindustan Publishing, 1964