Mihir Chowdhury (15 July 1937 – 28 March 2017) was an Indian and Professor and Head of Department of Chemistry at   and at the Department of Physical Chemistry of the  (IACS) He is known for his studies on the electronic structure of molecules using optical, magneto-optical and quantum-mechanical methods  He was an elected fellow of the   and the  The  the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the   one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1977, for his contributions to chemical sciences. Three of his research students were also Shanti Swarup Bhatnager awardees.

Biography Presidency University, Kolkata Chowdhury was bo

  (presently in Bangladesh) to Jogendra Kumar Chowdhury and Indira Chowdhury (nee' Guhathakurta), graduated in chemistry from   in 1955 and completed his master's degree in 1957 from the   Enrolling for his doctoral research under the guidance of the renowned chemist and   laureate, , he secured a PhD and moved to the US for his post-doctoral research which lasted three years, working at the  during 1961–62 and at the  from 1962 to 1964. On his return to India the same year, he started his career as a pool officer at  (IACS) and stayed there till 1966 when he joined Presidency College, Kolkata (the present-day   as a faculty of the department of chemistry He served the college for over a decade as a professor of chemistry 

It was during this time, he was caught between a student unrest in the college and had to suffer manhandling by a section of the agitating students. The incident resulted in his absence from the college for almost a year and subsequent resignation from the college  He was the head of the department of chemistry at Presidency College when he left the institution to return to Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science as a professor in 1966 and when he superannuated in 1998, he had served IACS as the head of the department of physical chemistry since 1976. Post retirement, he served as a senior scientist of the Indian National Science Academy, a position he held till 2006. He also continued his association with the post graduate teaching programs of Calcutta University and Presidency College on honorary basis 

Chowdhury's wife Sunanda Chowdhury taught at Muralidhar Girls' College. Their Son, Arindam is a professor at IIT, Bombay and daughter, Avantika is an economist. His elder sister Prof. Amita Datta is a noted economist who taught at Delhi University, Lady Brabourne and Presidency Colleges, Kolkata. His elder brother Dr. Subir Chowdhury was a director at IIM, Kolkata. The family lives in Kolkata.

Legacy 

Using optical, magneto-optical and quantum-mechanical methodologies, Chowdhury studied the electronic structure of molecules and widened the understanding of CT,  and parity forbidden transitions of metal complexes, bimolecules and rare earth complexes. He developed facilities to carry out his spectroscopic and fast kinetic experiments and studied various fields of spectroscopy such as laser, time-resolved and non-linear optics, and elucidated role of spin and magnetic field in the radical pair recombination process, circular dichroism of crystal field split components in cooled single crystals, and laser-induced fluorescence of jet-cooled large organic molecules and their hydrated clusters. His work on the   conjecture is reported to have assisted him to ratify for the first time that the CT band is polarised along the intermolecular axis.

Chowdhury documented his researches by way of over 155 articles published in peer-reviewed journals He was associated with a number of science journals as a member of their editorial boards and guided 30 doctoral scholars in their studies. His involvement in the efforts to popularise science included a series of lectures on topics such as LASER- the wonderful toy, Hundred years of electron discovery, and Symmetry in Chemistry and Physics and his contributions have earned him mention from other authors 

Awards and honours 

The   awarded Chowdhury the  , one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1977. He received the Silver Medal of the as well as the Lifetime Acahivement Award and the life membership of the Indian Society for Radiation and Photochemical Sciences in 2000 In 2005, Calcutta University awarded him the Eminent Teacher Award and the next year, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the  , followed by the Gold Medal of the Chemical Research Society of India, a year later. 

Chowdhury was a recipient of   degrees of Doctor of Science of the  (2007) and   (2013) He was a National Lecturer of the   in 1980 and the award orations he has delivered include Mitra Memorial Lecture of   (1988), K. Rangadhama Rao Memorial Lecture of Indian National Science Academy (1989)  J. C. Ghosh Memorial Lecture of Indian Chemical Society (1997), Morris Travers Memorial Lecture of the   (1998),  Baba Kartar Singh Memorial Lecture of   (1999), Sadhan Basu Memorial Lecture of Indian National Science Academy (2002) and the Mizushima-Raman Lectures in Japan (2003).  The Indian Academy of Sciences elected him as a fellow in 1977 before he became a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy in 1980.