Mushi Santappa

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Mushi Santappa
Born(1923-10-02)2 October 1923
Jonnagiri,
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize
  • 1982 ICS Sir J. C. Ghosh Memorial Medal
  • 1985 FICCI Award for Science and Technology
  • Sevaratna Award
  • Voice Award for Science and Technology
    • Scientific career
    Fields
    Institutions
    Doctoral advisor

    Mushi Santappa

    FRIC (2 October 1923 – 26 February 2017) was an Indian polymer chemist, leather technologist and a vice chancellor of Sri Venkateswara University and the University of Madras.[1][2] He was one of the founder directors of Avanti Leathers Limited[3] and was known for his researches on the synthesis of graft copolymers, the properties of macromolecules, and osmotic techniques.[4] He was an elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences,[5] National Academy of Sciences, India,[6] Royal Institute of Chemistry and New York Academy of Sciences[7] and a founder fellow of the Academy of Sciences, Chennai.[8] 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 1967, for his contributions to chemical sciences.[9]

    Biography

    University of Madras Entrance Arch at Chepauk Campus

    Mushi Santappa was born on 2 October 1923 in Jonnagiri village in the south Indian state of

    Manchester University, working under the guidance of Meredith Gwynne Evans, a Fellow of the Royal Society; his thesis was based on the physical chemistry of high polymers. Returning to India, he joined the University of Madras as a reader of physical chemistry in 1952 and in 1958, he was transferred to the Madurai Extension Centre (present-day Madurai Kamaraj University) as a professor. He returned to Chennai in 1963 as the head of the department of physical chemistry. Serving as a UGC Senior Professor at the university from 1966 onward, he also worked as a director at Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) from 1972. In 1979, he was appointed as the vice chancellor of Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati and on expiry of his tenure in 1980,[1] he returned to Chennai and took up the assignment as the vice chancellor of the University of Madras in 1981 where he stayed till 1984.[2] While working as the UGC professor, he co-founded Avanti Leather Limited, a public limited company involved in the manufacture and export of leather products, in 1976.[11]

    Santappa was married to Lakshmi Devi and the couple has three daughters and two sons. He died on 26 February 2017, in Chennai, at the age of 93.[12]

    Legacy

    Santappa's early researches during his doctoral studies were related to vinyl monomers.4 and its free radical polymerization using light but later, he shifted his focus to the study of kinetics of vinyl polymerization during his stint at the laboratory of

    photo polymerization. He also demonstrated the synthesis of graft copolymers by simple chain transfer process and also studied oxidation of a number of organic substrates.[13]

    His researches have been published in over 350 articles[note 1] and he guided 59 research scholars on the doctoral studies.[7] Moreover, he published a comprehensive text on the State of the Art in Polymer Science and Engineering in India.[14] Together with Santi K. Palit, a known chemist, he promoted research in polymer science at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science and was one of the organizers of the International Symposium on Polymers, under the aegis of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), held in Chennai in 1983.[10] He served as the chair of the Science and Society project of the Department of Science and Technology and has been an adviser to the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. It was during his tenure as the vice chancellor, the University of Madras established department of Energy and department of Polymer Science and Technology. He was also a national professor and member of the University Grants Commission and sat in the council of the Indian National Science Academy.[7]

    Awards and honors

    The

    Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1967.[15]
    He received the Sir J. C. Ghosh Memorial Medal of the
    Sri Krishna Devaraya University and Madurai Kamaraj University. He was an elected fellow of all the three major Indian sciences academies, Indian Academy of Sciences (1961),[5] Indian National Science Academy (1971) and National Academy of Sciences, India (1983).[6] He was also a fellow of Royal Institute of Chemistry (1970) and the New York Academy of Sciences (1985) and a founder fellow of the Academy of Sciences Chennai.[8] The Society for Polymer Science, India have instituted an annual award, Professor M. Santappa Award, in his honor, which recognizes excellence in research in polymer chemistry.[10]

    Selected bibliography

    Book

    Articles

    See also

    Notes

    1. ^ Please see Selected bibliography section

    References

    1. ^ a b "S V University - Former Vice Chancellors". S V University. 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
    2. ^ a b "Vice Chancellors". Madras University. 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
    3. ^ "Avanti Leathers Limited". Company Data. 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
    4. ^ "Brief Profile of the Awardee". Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. 2016. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
    5. ^ a b "Fellow profile". Indian Academy of Sciences. 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
    6. ^ a b "NASI fellows". National Academy of Sciences, India. 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
    7. ^ a b c d "Indian fellow". Indian National Science Academy. 2016. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
    8. ^ a b "Founder fellows ASC" (PDF). Academy of Sciences, Chennai. 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
    9. ^ "View Bhatnagar Awardees". Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. 2016. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
    10. ^ a b c d "Prof. Santappa Profile". Society for Polymer Science, India. 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
    11. ^ "Board of Directors". Avanti Leather Limited. 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
    12. ^ "Renowned polymer chemist, academic passes away". Daily Thanthi. 28 February 2017. Archived from the original on 28 February 2017.
    13. ^ "Handbook of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Winners" (PDF). Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. 1999. p. 34. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
    14. ^ M. Santappa (1996). State of the Art in Polymer Science and Engineering in India (PDF). T. R. Publications.
    15. ^ "Chemical Sciences". Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. 2016. Archived from the original on 12 September 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2016.

    Further reading

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