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{{EngvarB|date=March 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Sasanka Chandra Bhattacharyya
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1918|8|31}}
| birth_place = [[Sylhet]], [[Assam Province]], British India
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2013|5|19|1918|8|31}}
| death_place = [[Kolkata]], West Bengal, India
| residence =
| nationality = [[Indian nationality|Indian]]
| fields = {{ublist | [[Natural product chemistry]] | [[Analytical chemistry]] }}
| workplaces = {{ublist | [[Indian Institute of Science]] | | [[National Chemical Laboratory]] | [[Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai]] | [[Bose Institute]] }}
| alma_mater = {{ublist | [[Rajabazar Science College]] | [[Calcutta University]] | [[Dhaka University]] | [[Cambridge University]] }}
| doctoral_advisor = {{ublist | Praphulla Chandra Guha | B. Lythgoe }}
| doctoral_students =
| known_for = Studies on the structures and configurations of [[terpenoids]]
| awards = {{ublist | 1960 K. G. Naik Gold Medal | 1962 [[Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize]] | 1976 [[Indian National Science Academy|INSA]] Professor T. R. Seshadri 70th Birthday Commemoration Medal | 1985 [[Indian Institute of Science|IISc]] Platinum Jubilee Medal | 1989 IFEAT Medal }}
}}
'''Sasanka Chandra Bhattacharyya''' (1918–2013) was an Indian [[Natural product chemistry|natural product chemist]] and the director of [[Bose Institute]], Kolkata.<ref name="Directors">{{cite web | url=http://boseinst.ernet.in/directors.html | title=Directors | work=List of directors | publisher=Bose Institute |year=2016 | access-date=6 November 2016}}</ref> He was known for his studies on structures and configurations of [[terpenoids]] and synthesis of [[Vetiver Oil]] and natural [[musk]].<ref name="Brief Profile of the Awardee">{{cite web | url=http://ssbprize.gov.in/content/Detail.aspx?AID=408 | title=Brief Profile of the Awardee | publisher=Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize |year=2016 | access-date=5 October 2016}}</ref> He was the vice-president of the [[Indian National Science Academy]]<ref name="Deceased fellow">{{Cite web |url=http://www.insaindia.res.in/detail/N66-0094 |title=Deceased fellow |year=2016 |publisher=Indian National Science Academy |access-date=5 November 2016}}</ref> and was an elected fellow of the academy as well as the [[Indian Academy of Sciences]].<ref name="Fellow profile">{{cite web | url=http://www.ias.ac.in/describe/fellow/Bhattacharyya,_Prof._Sasanka_Chandra | title=Fellow profile | publisher=Indian Academy of Sciences |year=2016 | access-date=5 November 2016}}</ref> 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 1962, for his contributions to chemical sciences.<ref name="View Bhatnagar Awardees">{{cite web | url=http://ssbprize.gov.in/Content/AwardeeList.aspx | title=View Bhatnagar Awardees | publisher=Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize |year=2016 | access-date=5 October 2016}}</ref>

== Biography ==
His parents, Sirish Chandra, a [[Sanskrit]] scholar and Kadambinidevi, a homemaker, came from [[Sylhet]], a town on the banks of [[River Surma]] in the undivided Bengal of the [[British India]] (now in Bangladesh), and it was here Sasanka Chandra Bhattacharyya was born on 31 August 1918.<ref name="Educationist, Scientist, and Administrator">{{cite journal | url=http://journal.library.iisc.ernet.in/index.php/iisc/article/viewFile/2534/2599 | title=Educationist, scientist, and Administrator | author=S. K. Paknikar | journal=Indian Institute of Science Journal | year=2016}}</ref> His college education was at [[Calcutta University]] College of Science also called [[Rajabazar Science College]] from where he passed BSc in 1938 and MSc in 1940 during which time he had the opportunity to study under S. S. Guha Sarkar, a noted chemist of the time.<ref name="Sasanka Chandra Bhattacharyya (1918–2013)">{{cite journal | url=http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/105/01/0114.pdf | title=Sadsanka Chandra Bhattacharyya (1918–2013) |author1=Girish K. Trivedi |author2=Aliasgar Q. Contractor |author3=Prasenjit Ghosh | journal=Current Science | date=July 2013 | volume=105 | issue=1}}</ref> Moving to Bengaluru in 1941, he joined the [[Indian Institute of Science]] (IISc) and did doctoral research under P. C. Guha, a known organic chemist but submitted his doctoral thesis on [[sandalwood oil]] chemistry at [[Dhaka University]] in 1943 which awarded him the degree a year later. He would later enroll himself at [[Cambridge University]] in 1945 under the guidance of B. Lythgoe, a [[Royal Society]] fellow, to secure a second PhD in 1949, working on [[Centella asiatica]], a plant used for treating leprosy. He started his career as a research chemist with Herts Pharmaceuticals but it lasted only one year (1949–50).<ref name="Educationist, Scientist, and Administrator" />

Returning in 1950 to India which had attained freedom by that time, Bhattacharyya joined IISc as a faculty member at their department of chemistry and when an opportunity came at the [[National Chemical Laboratory]] (NCL), he took it up to start a service which lasted a decade and a half as a senior scientific officer in 1951. At NCL, he established a new division for essential oils, with assistance from the [[Council of Scientific and Industrial Research]] where he became the founder deputy director. His next move was to the [[Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai]] in 1966 as a senior professor where he established the Department of Chemistry and held the position of a deputy director at the time of his departure 1976. A year later, he joined [[Bose Institute]], Kolkata as its director and served the institution till his superannuation in 1984<ref name="Directors" /> but continued his association with IIT, Mumbai as an honorary visiting professor.<ref name="Deceased fellow" />

Sasanka Bhattacharrya was married to Geeta Bhattacharyya.<ref name="Educationist, Scientist, and Administrator" /> The couple had a son and two daughters and after the demise of his wife in 1999, he mainly lived with one of his daughters in Dehradun where he died on 19 May 2013, at the age of 94.<ref name="Brief Profile of the Awardee" />

== Legacy ==
Bhattacharyya's research history starts from his days at [[Calcutta University]] where he studied under S. S. Guha Sarkar and the duo's work on ''Reagents in inorganic chemistry'' has returned two articles published in 1941.<ref name="Educationist, Scientist, and Administrator" /> Later, his work with B. Lythgoe at Cambridge University focused on the anti-leprosy properties of [[Centella asiatica]] where they attempted to elucidate the chemical constituents of the medicinal herb and their researches appeared as two articles in [[Nature (journal)|Nature]].<ref name="Triterpene Acids">{{cite journal | title=Triterpene Acids | author=S. C. Bhattacharyya, B. Lythgoe | journal=Nature | date=12 February 1949 | volume=163 | issue=4137 | pages=259 | doi=10.1038/163259a0| pmid=18109175 | bibcode=1949Natur.163..259B | s2cid=2291972 }}</ref><ref name="Centelloside">{{cite journal | url=http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v163/n4137/abs/163259b0.html | title=Centelloside | author=S. C. Bhattacharyya, B. Lythgoe | journal=Nature | date=12 February 1949 | volume=163 | issue=4137 | pages=259–60 | doi=10.1038/163259a0| pmid=18109175 | bibcode=1949Natur.163..259B | s2cid=2291972 }}</ref> He carried forward his researches on [[Terpenoid|terpernoids]] in India too and worked on the synthesis of natural musk odorous compounds which resulted in the development of compounds such as [[muscone]], [[Civetone|dihydrocivetone]], exaltone, [[exaltolide]] and [[ambrettolide]] which are reported to have commercial value.<ref name="Handbook of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Winners">{{cite web | url=http://www.csirhrdg.res.in/ssb.pdf | title=Handbook of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Winners | publisher=Council of Scientific and Industrial Research |year=1999 | access-date=5 October 2016 | pages=34}}</ref> Besides, he also synthesised compounds such as [[jasmines]], [[rose oxide]], [[A-santalol|santalols]] and santalenes. One of the major contributions of the research group led by Bhattacharyya was the ''demonstration of the antipodal nature of constituents of [[Vetiver Oil]]''.<ref name="History of Natural Products Chemistry in India">{{cite journal | url=http://www.insa.nic.in/writereaddata/UpLoadedFiles/IJHS/Vol49_4_5_KNagarajan.pdf | title=History of Natural Products Chemistry in India | author=K. Nagarajan | journal=Indian Journal of History of Science | year=2014 | volume=49 | issue=4 | pages=377–398}}</ref> Overall, he was known to have isolated over 100 compounds falling under terpenoids and [[coumarins]] categories.<ref name="Deceased fellow" />

Bhattacharyya published his researches in over 250 articles<ref name="Browse by Fellow">{{cite web | url=http://repository.ias.ac.in/view/fellows/Bhattacharyya=3ASasanka_Chandra=3A=3A.html | title=Browse by Fellow | work=Article listing | publisher=Indian Academy of Sciences |year=2016 | access-date=7 November 2016}}</ref>{{Refn|group=note|Please see ''Selected bibliography'' section}} and he and his team held patents for some of the processes they developed.<ref name="Preparation of costus root oil and the products thereof">{{cite web | url=https://www.google.com/patents/US2946783 | title=Preparation of costus root oil and the products thereof | work=Patent No. US 2946783 A | publisher=United States Patent | date=26 July 1960 | access-date=6 November 2016 | author=Chandra Bhattacharyya Sasanka, Ramchandra Kelkar Govind}}</ref><ref name="Process for the preparation of Azelainsaeuremonoaethylesters">{{cite web | url=https://www.google.com/patents/US2946783 | title=Process for the preparation of Azelainsaeuremonoaethylesters | work=Patent No. DE 1196633 B | publisher=German Patent | date=15 July 1965 | access-date=6 November 2016 |author1=Ullal Govindraj Nayak |author2=Kamala Kinkar Chakravarti |author3=Sasanka Chandra Bhattacharyya }}</ref> On the academic front, he gathered a team of researchers under a new division for research on essential oils and established the department of chemistry of Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai where he served as a senior professor for over a decade.<ref name="Deceased fellow" /> During his career, he mentored 90 doctoral students and served as an adviser to [[Tata Group|House of Tatas]]. He was associated with the [[Indian Chemical Society|''Journal of Indian Chemical Society'']] as its editor (1967–70) and with ''Indian Journal of Chemistry'' as a member of its editorial board. He served in the council of the Indian National Science Academy from 1978 to 1980 and was a life member of the Life Member of Perfumes and Flavours Association of India (now known as Fragrances and Flavours Association of India).<ref name="Deceased fellow" />

== Awards and honours ==
[[Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda]] awarded Bhattacharyya K. G. Naik Gold Medal in 1960 and the [[Council of Scientific and Industrial Research]] chose him as the third recipient of the [[Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize]], one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1962.<ref name="View Bhatnagar Awardees" /> He received the degree of Doctor of Science (DSc) of Cambridge University in 1964<ref name="Educationist, Scientist, and Administrator" /> and two years later, the [[Indian National Science Academy]] elected him as its fellow in 1966.<ref name="Deceased fellow" /> He received the Platinum Jubilee Medal of the Indian Institute of Science in 1985 and the IFEAT Medal in 1989.<ref name="Educationist, Scientist, and Administrator" /> He became an elected fellow of the [[Indian Academy of Sciences]] in 1975<ref name="Fellow profile" /> and was a fellow of the [[Indian Chemical Society]].<ref name="Deceased fellow" /> He delivered several award orations; Acharya P. C. Roy Memorial Lecture and Medal (1969) and Acharya J. C. Ghosh Memorial Lecture and Medal (1971) of the [[Indian Chemical Society]], Professor K. Venkatraman Lecture Award of [[University of Mumbai]] (1970) and G. P. Chatterjee Lecture Award of Indian National Science Academy (1981)<ref name="G. P. Chatterjee Lecture Award">{{cite web | url=http://www.insaindia.res.in/recipients.php#guru | title=G. P. Chatterjee Lecture Award | publisher=Indian National Science Academy |year=2016 | access-date=6 November 2016}}</ref> are some of the notable ones among them. The Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai has instituted an award, ''Prof. S.C. Bhattacharya Award for Excellence in Pure Science'' in his honour to recognise excellence in research in pure science disciplines.<ref name="Prof. S.C. Bhattacharya Award for Excellence in Pure Science">{{cite web | url=http://www.ircc.iitb.ac.in/IRCC-Webpage/rnd/ResearchAwardsDetails.jsp?AwardType=NationalInstituteIITB&AwardName=Prof.S.C.BhattacharyaAward | title=Prof. S.C. Bhattacharya Award for Excellence in Pure Science | publisher=IIT Mumbai |year=2016 | access-date=7 November 2016}}</ref>

== Patents ==
* {{cite web | url=https://www.google.com/patents/US2946783 | title=Preparation of costus root oil and the products thereof | work=Patent No. US 2946783 A | publisher=United States Patent | date=26 July 1960 | author=Chandra Bhattacharyya Sasanka, Ramchandra Kelkar Govind}}
* {{cite web | url=https://www.google.com/patents/US2946783 | title=Process for the preparation of Azelainsaeuremonoaethylesters | work=Patent No. DE 1196633 B | publisher=German Patent | date=15 July 1965 |author1=Ullal Govindraj Nayak |author2=Kamala Kinkar Chakravarti |author3=Sasanka Chandra Bhattacharyya }}

== Selected bibliography ==
* {{cite journal | title=Triterpene Acids | author=S. C. Bhattacharyya, B. Lythgoe | journal=Nature | date=12 February 1949 | volume=163 | issue=4137 | pages=259 | doi=10.1038/163259a0| pmid=18109175 | bibcode=1949Natur.163..259B | s2cid=2291972 }}
* {{cite journal | title=Centelloside | author=S. C. Bhattacharyya, B. Lythgoe | journal=Nature | date=12 February 1949 | volume=163 | issue=4137 | pages=259–60 | doi=10.1038/163259a0| pmid=18109175 | bibcode=1949Natur.163..259B | s2cid=2291972 }}
* {{cite journal | title=4-Aminosalicylic acid and its derivatives. Part II. The synthesis of 4-amino-2 : 5- and 4-amino-2 : 3-dihydroxybenzoic acid | author=S. C. Bhattacharyya, D. E. Seymour | journal=J. Chem. Soc. | year=1950 | pages=1139–1140 | doi=10.1039/JR9500001139}}
* {{cite journal | title=Synthesis of polycyclic compounds. Part IV. Substituted 3-alkylphenanthrenes |author1=J. C. Bardhan |author2=R. N. Adhya |author3=K. C. Bhattacharyya | journal=J. Chem. Soc. | year=1956 | pages=1346–1349 | doi=10.1039/JR9560001346}}
* {{cite journal | title=Macrocyclic musk compounds. Part I. New syntheses of exaltolide, exaltone, and dihydrocivetone |author1=V. V. Dhekne |author2=B. B. Ghatge |author3=U. G. Nayak |author4=K. K. Chakravarti |author5=S. C. Bhattacharyya | journal=J. Chem. Soc. | year=1962 | pages=2348–2352 | doi=10.1039/JR9620002348}}
* {{cite journal | title=Terpenoids—LXXXVI : Structure of epi-ψ-taraxastanonol and epi-ψ-taraxastanediol |author1=V.K. Hinge |author2=S.K. Paknikar |author3=K.G. Das |author4=A.K. Bose |author5=S.C. Bhattacharyya | journal=Tetrahedron | date=January 1966 | volume=22 | issue=8 | pages=2861–2868 | doi=10.1016/S0040-4020(01)99077-5}}
* {{cite journal | url=http://www.anandamayi.org/anandavarta/Vol43index.pdf | title=Shree Shree Ma Anandamayee as I have seen her known her | author=Sasanka Chandra Bhattacharyya | journal=Ananda Varta | year=1996 | volume=43}}

== Trivia ==
* Bhattacharyya and his wife donated all their gold belongings to the Government of India in the wake of the [[Sino-Indian war of 1962]] following an appeal by [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], the then prime minister of India.
* He wrote an article, ''Shree Shree Ma Anandamayee as I have seen her known her'', which was published in ''Ananda Varta'', the official publication of Shree Shree Anandamayee Charitable Society of [[Anandamayi Ma]].<ref name="Shree Shree Ma Anandamayee as I have seen her known her">{{cite journal | url=http://www.anandamayi.org/anandavarta/Vol43index.pdf | title=Shree Shree Ma Anandamayee as I have seen her known her | author=Sasanka Chandra Bhattacharyya | journal=Ananda Varta | year=1996 | volume=43}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Terpenoids]]
* [[Vetiver Oil]]
* [[Musk]]
* [[Centella asiatica]]
{{div col end}}
{{portal|India|Chemistry}}

== Notes ==
{{reflist|group=note}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{cite web | url=http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/obituaries/89388428/sasanka-chandra-bhattacharyya-1918-2013 | title=Sasanka Chandra Bhattacharyya | publisher=EBSCO Host Connection |year=2016 | access-date=6 November 2016}}{{dead link|date=November 2020|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

{{SSBPST recipients in Chemical Science}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhattacharyya, Sasanka Chandra}}
[[Category:Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Chemical Science]]
[[Category:1918 births]]
[[Category:2013 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Sylhet]]
[[Category:Indian organic chemists]]
[[Category:Indian scientific authors]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]]
[[Category:Indian Institute of Science alumni]]
[[Category:University of Dhaka alumni]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge]]
[[Category:IIT Bombay faculty]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian inventors]]
[[Category:Bengali scientists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian chemists]]

Sasanka Chandra Bhattacharyya - Revision history

>Citation bot: Add: s2cid. | Use this bot. Report bugs. | Suggested by Abductive | Category:University of Calcutta alumni‎ | via #UCB_Category 1216/1421