OBITUARY

Prof. Surendra Gupta (1939 - 2021) Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Prof. Surendra Gupta served IIT Kanpur as faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering since 1971 and at the post of Professor since 1977. After attaining the age of 62 years, he retired on 30th September 2001 and remained with the Institute until 30th June 2002. Thereafter he served as Director of a private Institute in Sonipat, Haryana for few years and then moved to Mumbai at his son’s place.

Before joining IIT Kanpur, he worked in Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Board during 1960-64 and English Electric Co. Ltd. UK during 1964-71, which he joined after completing his Ph.D. from Imperial College UK in 1964. He has been actively involved in development of several courses at Undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the department. He has taught institute core courses such as ‘Introduction to Elect. Eng.’ and professional core and elective courses at UG & PG level. He also took responsibility of developing and modernization of Basic Electrical Eng. Lab and EMEC lab. being used by B.Tech students. He has taught almost all the courses in the area of Electrical Power Systems.

Prof. Gupta carried out several Institute administrative responsibilities. These include Dean Academic Affairs during 1990-93, Organizing Chairman of J.E.E. 1989, Head examiner and chief paper setter of GATE several times. He has also participated actively in the corporate life on the IITK campus such as serving as Chairman, Senate Rules Committee; Chairman, Senate Nominations Committee; Chairman, Senate Election Committee; Chairman, Health Centre Committee; Chairman Staff Training Board; Chairman, Swimming Pool Committee; Chairman TAC, Air-conditioning; Advisor, Horticulture, and member of several institute and departmental committees. He also acted as Vice Chairman, IFAC committee.

On 23 December 2021 morning, he breathed his last at Mumbai. He has left behind him his wife Veena Gupta, who was at Central School IIT Kanpur for several years, son Nirjhar, daughter Nidhi and their family.

We convey our deep condolences to his family pray to the Almighty to allow his soul to rest in peace.

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OBITUARY

Dr. Sudipta Dutta (Ph.D) Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Prof. Sudipta Dutta was born on August 29, 1976. He did his B.Stat. (1997), M.Stat. (1999) at Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) Kolkata. He worked for his Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Pradipta Bandyopadhyay at ISI Kolkata, completing it in 2004. Subsequently, he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Mathematics, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva Campus, Israel, during the period 2004-06. During 2006-07, he was a visiting scientist at ISI Kolkata. He joined IIT Kanpur as Assistant Professor in July, 2007, and became a Professor in 2016.

Sudipta's research interests included Banach space theory, Operator spaces and Abstract harmonic analysis. He was quite well-known in his area. In the short span of less than 15 years, he published about 25 articles, all in premier journals. He was awarded the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Fellowship in 2008-09, and the P K Kelkar Young Research Fellowship of IIT Kanpur.

Two students got their Ph.D. degrees under his supervision. He was supervising the thesis of a third student at the time of his demise. He taught elective courses on a variety of topics, and his teaching was much appreciated by the students of the department.

Sudipta's contribution to the department as part of different committees was immense. In particular, he was very successful as convener of the faculty search committee – it was due to his proactive efforts that the department recruited a good number of promising young colleagues.

With Sudipta's untimely and shocking demise, the department has lost a star faculty. His immaculate wit and humour will be missed, especially during faculty meetings.

Sudipta will be remembered for the impact that he leaves behind in his tragically short life. He is survived by his wife, Rohini and 10 year old son, Soham. May the family get the strength to bear and cope with this irreparable loss.

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OBITUARY

Prof. U B Tewari Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Professor Uday Bhan Tewari was born on 18th June 1944 in a village Mukeripur, Ambedkar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh. He passed away on 2nd July, 2019 around 4pm due to a massive heart attack at his residence in Azad Nagar, Kanpur. He is survived by his wife daughter, son and grand children.

U.B. Tewari, popularly known as UBT, was a distinguished mathematician and has indeed left a legacy. After his bachelor and master's degree from Lucknow University, he joined IIT Kanpur in 1964, as a Ph.D. student and then later moved to University of California Berkeley for a Ph.D in 1967. At Berkeley he worked with a Professor Henry Helson, a leading figure in Harmonic Analysis,and obtained the degree in the year 1969. After his Ph.D he moved to Institut Mittag-Leffler, Dijursholm, Sweden for a year (1969-1970). He chose to work at IIT Kanpur as a faculty member in the year 1970 and became a full professor at a young age of 37 and remained there till 2009.

UBT was instrumental in making IIT Kanpur Mathematics Department a serious place for mathematics, Analysis in particular. As a consequence, IIT Kanpur has produced many brilliant mathematicians. Through his inspiring and rigorous teaching he made many difficult books and concepts easy to understand for generations of mathematicians trained at IIT Kanpur.Most of his students owe their solid foundation of mathematics to him. They respect him enormously.

He started an Harmonic Analysis school at IIT Kanpur and brought colleagues from other reputed Institutes together. This has now become a large family consisting of colleagues, students, grand students and great grand students.

He has been recognised for his work by receiving many accolades such as Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, Meghnad Saha Award for Research in Theoretical Sciences and Fellow, National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad.

UBT shared a beautiful relationship with his colleagues. He was loved and respected for his forthrightness, firm beliefs and sensitivity. Many sought his advice in time of need he never failed them.

There are many stories concerning UBT's witty and humorous remarks, which are remembered fondly whenever his former students and friends meet.

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OBITUARY

Prof. Samares Kar (1942-2017) Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Prof. Samares Kar was born in Kolkata in 1942. He received the B.Tech. degree in 1962 from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, in 1968 and 1970, respectively, all in Electrical Engineering.

From 1963 to 1965, he worked in Germany, first as a Design Engineer at Hamburger Transformatorenbau, Hamburg, and then as a Project Engineer at Continental Elektroindustrie, Rheydt. From 1971 to 1974, he was a Member of the Scientific Staff at the Fraunhofer Institute of Applied Solid State Physics, Freiburg, Germany. In 1975, he joined the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, and subsequently became a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Materials Science. In 1979, he was a Visiting Associate Professor of Engineering Science, the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, and in 1981, he was a Visiting Professor of Electrical Engineering, Lehigh University. His research interests included MOS tunnel devices, Si–SiO2 interface states, solar cells, ion-beam-induced defects, organic monolayers, high-k gate dielectrics, and MOS/MIS parameter extraction.

Prof. Kar was a prolific researcher in the broad area of semiconductor devices and was very well known in the area of his research. He retired from IIT Kanpur in 2004 and was an Emeritus Fellow till June 2006. Prof. Kar passed away on 13th January 2017. The fellow colleagues and staff members in the department and in the institute mourn this loss.

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