Bidyendu Mohan Deb

Bidyendu Mohan Deb (born 1942) is an Indian theoretical chemist, chemical physicist and a professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata (IISER). he is known for his studies in theoretical chemistry and chemical physics. He is an elected fellow of the The World Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Sciences. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1981, for his contributions to chemical sciences.

Panjab University

B. M. Deb, born on 27 September 1942 in the Indian state of West Bengal when the pre-independent India was going through the Quit India movement, graduated in chemistry (BSc hons) from Presidency College, Kolkata (present-day Presidency University) and completed his master's degree from the University College of Science, with physical chemistry as the optional subject. Subsequently, he joined S. R. Palit at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) and after a year, he moved to the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford on a Commonwealth scholarship from where he passed the Diploma in Advanced Mathematics. Continuing at the institution, he did his doctoral research under Charles Coulson, a pioneer of quantum theory of valency, to secure a DPhil in mathematics.

Deb started his career which spanned across several institutions at Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science as a CSIR pool officer in 1969 but a year later, moved to the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai as a member of faculty. In 1971, he was appointed as an assistant professor at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani but after a brief stint of one year, he returned to IIT Mumbai where he spent the next 12 years, serving as an assistant professor (1973–78) and as a professor (1978–84). His next move was to Panjab University as the professor of theoretical chemistry in 1984 and after a service of two decades there, he moved to Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) as the ISRO Vikram Sarabhai Research Professor in 2004 to superannuate from service in 2007. Post-retirement, he serves as a visiting professor at Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science and as an INSA Senior Scientist and Honorary Scholar-in-Residence at Visva-Bharati University.

Deb's main contributions are in the field of theoretical chemistry and the molecular geometry model he developed to demonstrate the influence of electronuclear attractive force and the highest occupied molecular orbital in the determination of molecular shapes is reported to be a notable one. His work on the applicability of the concept of internal stresses of molecules and solids revealed their relation to the density-functional theory and quantum fluid dynamics. He developed methodologies for predicting new molecules using quantum chemistry and for combining cellular automata with Thomas-Fermi-Dirac theory.

His researches have been documented in a number of articles published in peer-reviewed journals and he has published two books, The Force Concept in Chemistry and The Single-Particle Density in Physics and Chemistry. Besides, he has also written about holistic education as well as on Satyajit Ray, one of the pioneers of modern Indian cinema. His writings have been cited by many authors and he has guided twenty three doctoral scholars in their studies. He was also involved with curriculum designing programs and seminars and has been associated with science journals as a member of their editorial boards.

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded Deb the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1981. A guest scholar of the Kyoto University in 1989 and an honorary professor of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research from 1992 to 2004, he received the Sir C. V. Raman Award in Physical Sciences of the University Grants Commission of India in 1988, Biennial Professor S. R. Palit Memorial Award of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science in 1995 and the FICCI Award in Physical Sciences in 1996. He is also a recipient of the Silver Medal of the Chemical Research Society of India Silver Medal (2000). The list of award orations he has delivered include Linus Pauling Memorial Lecture of Mahatma Gandhi University (1996), Professor Sadhan Basu Memorial Lecture of the Indian National Science Academy (1999), Mitra Memorial Lecture of Delhi University (2000), A. V. Rama Rao Foundation Lecture of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (2003) and the Panjab University Colloquium of 2016. The Indian Academy of Sciences elected him as a fellow in 1984 and he became a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy in 1987. He is also an elected fellow of The World Academy of Sciences and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.

Books

• B. M. Deb (February 1981). The Force concept in chemistry. Van Nostrand Reinhold. ISBN 978-0-442-26106-1. 
• Norman Henry March; B. M. Deb (1987). The single-particle density in physics and chemistry. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-470518-0. 

Articles

• Wadehra, Amita; Deb, B. M. (2003). "A numerical study of time-dependent schrödinger equation for multiphoton vibrational interaction of no molecule, modelled as morse oscillator, with intense far-infrared femtosecond lasers". Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences - Chemical Sciences. 115 (5-6): 349–364. doi:10.1007/BF02708228. 
• Roy, Amlan K.; Thakkar, Ajit J.; Deb, B. M. (2005). "Low-lying states of two-dimensional double-well potentials". Journal of Physics A. 38 (10): 2189. doi:10.1088/0305-4470/38/10/010. 
• Gupta, Neetu; Deb, B. M. (2006). "Does the classically chaotic Henon-Heiles oscillator exhibit quantum chaos under intense laser fields?". Pramana - Journal of Physics. 67 (6): 1055–1071. doi:10.1007/s12043-006-0023-z. 
• Sethi, Astha; Deb, B. M. (2007). "Prediction of new organo-noble gas compounds by ab initio quantum chemical calculations". Indian Journal of Chemistry - Section A. 46: 1565–1572. ISSN 0376-4710. 
• Sadhukhana, Mainak; Deb, B. M. (2010). "Variations in electron density and bonding in the lowest 1Σg state of H2 molecule under strong magnetic fields by using a time-dependent density functional theory". Journal of Molecular Structure: Theochem. 943 (1-3): 65–70. doi:10.1016/j.theochem.2009.10.021.