A Bright Son of Odisha
How we met: In a Spring morning in 1971, Engineer Chandrasekharbabu showed up in my apartment near Brown University along with his friend Dr Dhiraj Pradhan. He said “Deba: We have more Odia friends in Boston, and I usually go there during weekends to meet them. If you come along with me, I will introduce you to them.” This was a very generous offer to me and I immediately agreed. In early April one weekend, Chandrasekhar babu picked me up from Providence in his beautiful Saab car and we drove to Boston. On the way, he explained “Last night I have talked to Nagabhusan Senapati, who is studying at MIT and we will go first to his apartment.” He gave me the background about Nagabhusan babu; a mechanical engineering graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur and the recipient of the President’s Gold Medal for securing the highest percentage of marks among all branches of engineering of his graduating class. Being in the same branch of engineering, I was awed by the achievements of Nagabhusan Babu, and waited with a bit of anxiety to meet this genius of my discipline. We arrived at the graduate students’ apartment of the MIT campus, a beautiful brick building surrounded by big trees and nice green lawns. That was my first visit to the MIT campus. As I met Nagabhusan babu, I was amazed at his simplicity. He was an unassuming person, without any sign of ego, despite his huge accomplishments and he was a perfect gentleman to me. That was our first meeting and I felt very happy to meet a stalwart in my mechanical engineering field.
Through Chandrasekhar babu, I was also introduced to Dr. Gauri C. Das, who was a post-doctoral scholar at MIT in the Material Science department, after completing his Ph.D. from the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London. In some of these gatherings, I used to meet Nagabhusan babu and engage in discussions about our mutual research projects. During those meetings, Nagabhusanbabu explained to me that he was conducting research on acoustical theory and its application to medical diagnosis and treatment for his doctoral dissertation and his advisor was a Professor of Indian descent named Dr. Padmakar Lele. All these contacts occurred before the summer of 1974, when all of us were bachelors.
His broad intellect: I recall, one weekend we were having a small dinner gathering at Prasanna babu’s apartment. His apartment mate was Dr. Jayaraman, who hailed from South India and had completed his Ph.D. in physics in the superconductivity area from the University of Maryland, and was serving as a post-doctoral fellow in Boston. He was discussing an aspect of his research with Nagabhusanbabu and me. I had picked up some basic knowledge about this subject and could take part in the discussion with Jayaraman. But as he delved deep into the subject matter, I fell back, but Nagabhusan babu continued his discussion showing his breadth of knowledge on a topic different from his own specialization. By the end of that evening, both Jayaraman and I came away with the impression that Nagabhusan babu had a broad intellectual capability, having read and conceptualized a vast array of difficult branches of science.
On another occasion, when he was curious about my MS thesis topic at Brown, I explained to him my research project based on radiative heat transfer. He immediately cited some authoritative texts, advising me that I can find some valuable ideas and solutions from those references. Although, his specialization was in the field of acoustics and ultrasonics, different from my research on heat transfer, his mechanical engineering foundation was so broad that he could provide some intelligent suggestions on my research project.
His legacy: Nagabhusan babu was a true intellectual and valued education and academic achievements. Therefore, with the help of his wife, he inspired his daughters Sangeeta and Suneeta to excel academically. Due to the careful nurturing and guidance provided by Nagabhusan babu and Mrs. Rajkumari, both children performed very well academically and completed their medical degrees. Being at an academic institution, I observe every year, how only a small fraction of our bright students are selected for admission into medical colleges. I believe that the sincere efforts of Nagabhusan babu and Mrs. Senapati will remain as their lasting legacy in motivating their children to adopt the noble profession of medicine.
My remembrance: As an Odia, it is a matter of great pride for me to remember this bright son of Odisha, who excelled in the discipline of mechanical engineering. Nagabhusanbabu graduated from the best engineering institute in India of that era, as the top student in his class. He received his doctoral degree from the best engineering university in the world. He achieved phenomenal professional success at the prestigious national laboratory, Battelle Memorial Institute. After he moved to Ohio, and I to Alaska, we lost contact and I was unable to keep abreast of his achievements. However, whatever I knew about him during our close period in New England, assures me that he will always remain in my mind as a bright star, who brought recognition to not only Odisha, but India.
Debendra K Das, Fairbanks, Alaska.
Dr. Debendra Kumar Das was working as an Engineer in Providence when he met Nagabhusan. Both came from the background of Mechanical Engineering and there was academic friendship. Currently, Debendra is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at University of Alaska and lives with his wife Katherine Cross-Das in Fairbanks., Alaska.