Guest Editorial

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A Kumar

Prof A Kumar obtained the BSc (Hons) (Phys) (1954) & MSc (Phys) (1956) degrees from Delhi Univ (St Stephen's College); DIISc (ECE) (1959) ME (Distn) (Microwaves) (1960) & PhD (Antennas) (1966) (working as UGC Sr Res Fellow & later as NISI Jr Res Fellow) from IISc, Bangalore. He was awarded the Nuffield Foundation Fellowship (Engg) (1966) & under that he worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Univ College London, London, from Sep 1967 to Dec 1968 with Prof A L Cullen, OBE, FRS.

He joined the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, as a Lecturer in the ECE Department in 1965, appointed as an Asst Prof in 1969, promoted as an Assoc Prof in 1979 and promoted as a full Professor in 1984. He has been the Chairman of the ECE Dept Since March 1988. At the IISc, he is actively engaged in Research & Development, Teaching & Consultancy work. He has planned & offered many new courses for the PG & Undergraduates. He played a key role in formulating & introducing the new Integrated ME programme at the Institute. The thrust of his reserch interest has been in the field of Synthesis & Optimization of Antenna Arrays. He has done significant theoretical & experimental work on Adaptive Antenna Arrays for combating Jamming. He has successfully guided more than 20 research students for their degrees & more than 70 course students in their project work. He has written a text book on Microwave Techniques and published more than 30 research papers in various Foreign & Indian Journals. He is member of Boards of Studies of several Universities. He has been Consultant for many organisations like ISRO, BHEL & continues to be one for ASWAC, RRI & IIA in their Radio Astronomy Projects.

Prof A Kumar was elected as a Graduate of ITE in 1961, Associate Member ITE in 1967, Member ITE in 1975 & as a Fellow of IETE in 1979. He has been serving actively on the Executive Committee of the Bangalore Centre since 1970. He has made significant contributions to the growth of the Centre. He has been Hon Jt Secy of the Bangalore Centre for 6 yrs, Hon Secy for 6 yrs, Vice-Chairman for 2 yrs & Chairman for 2 yrs. He has been elected as a member of the IETE Council in 1989 and served the Council as the Chairman of its Publication Committee. Presently, he is a Vice-President of the IETE and the Chairman of its Academic Committee. He played a stellar role in initiating an innovative & unique programme—PROFICIENCE at the Bangalore Centre. He has been one of the 3 Coordinators of the programme from Feb 1985 to Sep 1988. He is also a Member of the IEEE (New York) (elected in 1961).

S K Chatterjee

Professor S K Chatterjee

He was born in Bengal on January 1, 1909 and had his early education in the Hooghly Branch School and Hooghly College (Physics Honours). He received MSc degree in Applied Physics with ‘Wireless’ as a special subject from the University of Calcutta in 1931.

He served as a Lecturer at the Signal Training Centre, Jabalpur; and then as an Assistant Lecturer in Electrical Communication Engineering at the Department of Applied Physics, Calcutta University. He worked as a Professional Assistant and then as an Assistant Meteorologist associated with the project on 'Investigations on the direction of arrival of ‘Atmospherics’, jointly sponsored by the Radio Research Committee and the Department of Meteorology. He joined the Indian Institute of Science as a Lecturer in the Department of Electrical Technology in 1946. In 1949 he was deputed by the Indian Institute of Science to USA to work as a guest worker in the National Bureau of Standards, Washington, DC. After returning from USA in 1951, he served as an Assistant Professor and then as a Professor in the Department of Electrical Communication Engineering. During this period he established the Microwave Engineering Laboratory for BE and ME degree courses and research.

His research activities included ‘Acoustics’, Radio Engineering and ‘Electronics’ in the Department of Applied Physics, Calcutta University and ‘Electronic Engineering’, ‘Ultra-high-frequency’ techniques and ‘Microwave’ Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, culminating in the publication of more than 100 research papers and nine unpublished research project reports. Seven of the reports were on ‘A systematic Theoretical and Experimental Study of Modulated Surface Wave Structures’ under PL-480 project, contract No. E-262-69. He also submitted a research report on ‘Non-magnetic Mass Spectrometer’ to the National Bureau of Standards, Washington DC in 1951. He also submitted another research report on the ‘Direction of Arrival of Atmospherics’ to the Radio Research Board, India in 1945.

Eight students obtained PhD degree in 'Microwave Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science working under his guidance.

He was awarded Sir JC Hose's Premium by the British Institution of Radio Engineers (1953) for his paper ‘Microwave Cavity Resonators-Some Perturbation Effects and their Applications’. He was also awarded Lord Mountbatten Premium and Sir JC Hose's Premium (1965) jointly with Mrs Rajeswari Chatterjee on their papers on ‘Dielectric-Loaded Waveguides’-A Review of Theoretical Solutions, published in four parts by the British Institution of Radio Engineers.

He is a Fellow of the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers, New Delhi.