Obituary
Dr. Nagabhusan Senapati (1945-2012)
A scientist and engineer, Nagabhusan Senapati passed away Saturday November 24 morning after a short illness. A brilliant mind and a modest man, he was admired for his professional accomplishments and for his insight into a wide variety of complex engineering problems. He was an authority on the application of ultrasonic and microwave technologies and made his mark as an inventor of material separation through disruption. His patents ranged from stain removal from various surfaces to fabricating an apparatus for determining gas liquid interfaces. Educated in India and the US, he worked at MIT and Battelle Research Institute and consulted for many companies in the US and abroad. He developed congestive heart failure and ultimately passed away of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. He was 67.
Nagabhusan came from the old stock of Oriya families who had made their home in the western hilly terrains of Orissa. The family ancestry might go back to the Kalinga days when the Oriya and Andhra culture was intermingled through valor, adventure and determination. His father Sri Ramaswamy Senapati was a pious religious man and served as the Inspector of Schools in Orissa. His mother Manikya Senapati came from a business family in the neighboring Koraput district in Orissa. Nagabhusan was the eldest of seven children, three boys and four girls. Two of his sisters have passed away; the second brother Gangadhar lives in Miami, FL. Two other sisters and the youngest brother live in India. Nagabhusan’s wife Rajkumari is the eldest daughter of late Purnachandra and Saraswati Senapaty of Khordha, Orissa. They have two daughters, Sangeeta and Suneeta, both are physicians and live in the US.
After completing his primary education in Bhawanipatna, Nagabhusan enrolled in Ravenshaw Collegiate School in Cuttack in 1953. His genius for setting up experiments was rooted in the school laboratory where he helped set up the after hour Science Club. Other students joined in and the Science Club became a popular attraction for students looking for hands-on activities with strings, magnets, motors and lenses. Nagabhusan acted as the mentor and the leader. He would spend several hours after school in grinding, polishing, winding and just plain looking. His industry in making an experiment show results was infectious and many others would follow him to learn from him and attempt independent projects. The teachers would invite him to set up classroom demonstrations; Nagabhusan gained reputation as the science experiment student in the school.
He finished the Higher Secondary School Examination and was admitted to Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur where he enrolled in 1962. He became an active member of the Orissa Society in campus and helped organize various social events to bring people together. Gangadhar joined him there two years later and Nagabhusan continued to help his brother as he had done earlier in School. He studied Mechanical Engineering and took the BTech degree in 1967, winning the President’s Gold Medal for having stood first among all graduates. Determined to stay in India, he joined Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute in Durgapur, West Bengal, and worked there for two years. Facilities for fundamental research were not well developed in India those days and he chose to leave India on award of a Tata Fellowship from MIT. He joined the Mechanical Engineering Department as a graduate student in 1969.
At MIT, Nagabhusan connected with a young professor of Indian descent Dr. Padmakar Lele who was starting up a new laboratory to test ultrasonic technology for industrial applications. Dr. Lele was also a physician and Nagabhusan became interested in the medical applications of ultrasonics in creating cavitation and disruption. Nagabhusan would do in-vivo animal studies to study the use of ultrasonic technology in surgical procedures. He became a local expert on the subject and went on to write his doctoral thesis on ultrasonic cavitation dynamics in the mammalian central nervous system.
He was known for his gentle and pleasant manners and had cultivated great friendship with many on campus. Friends had picnics in the local mountains and would go out on road trips. With the completion of his degree in 1974, he married and made his home in Somerville, MA. Nagabhusan’s home was a warm meeting place for his friends whom he and his wife treated with extreme hospitality. He loved good food and his wife was great company. He was constantly in touch with his parents in India with regular calls and remittance of support.
He stayed on as a Research Associate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and studied treatment of malignant tumors using ultrasonic technology and its application for liver and kidney ailments. He taught graduate courses and supervised thesis work of the students. Ultrasonic technology was gaining prominence for complex applications in aviation, structures, gas lines and surgical procedures. Nagabhusan chose to accept employment with Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio in 1977. Their first daughter Sangeeta was born in the Spring of that year.
The research-based environment at Battelle gave Nagabhusan the opportunity to develop diverse applications of his insight and expertise in ultrasonic technology. He led a team of talented professionals and went forward on a path of inventing engineering techniques in solving complex industrial problems with applications in polymers, plastics, rubber and metals. His work spanned from repairing aircraft structures to high speed packaging, from inventing gadget for dental plaque removal to creating apparatus for cleaning up under-sea debris. He was extremely well liked by his colleagues and he helped groom many future engineers. He made his home in the Columbus suburbs of Dublin and Worthington and also remained active in associating with his friends and organizing social events. His second daughter Suneeta was born in Dublin in 1982.
Nagabhusan became an independent consultant in 1996 during which time he worked with Procter and Gamble in Cincinnati, Ohio. He rejoined corporate structure in 1998 with Edison Welding Institute and then went on to become a consultant with Kimberly-Clarke, a consumer products company, where he helped invent new products and better methods in manufacturing. Here he could transform ideas to manufacture and directly affected the consumer market by helping to reduce cost in production and create durability. After thirty two years of work, he retired in 2006, but remained active with occasional consulting activity on medical applications of ultrasonic technology. He had amassed thirty five patents and a large number of publications including four book chapters on his line of work. He served as the US representative for the International Electromechanical Commission on Ultrasonic and also was elected the Vice President of the National Board of Ultrasonic Industry association.
Nagabhusan loved people and loved attending social events. He would be a familiar face in new homes and would share expertise in home making with the younger professionals. He was instrumental with the initial periods of Orissa Society of the Americas and served as its Secretary from 1979-1981. He helped initiate the temple building in Columbus and contributed his time and energy freely for the cause. He was a great family man, concerned for his brothers and sisters and took care of his children’s education and well being. Rajkumari was a fitting support to his bright intellect and the family maintained the strong ethics and values inspired by scholarly tradition. Nagabhusan will be missed by all who knew him and his life will remain a shining example of humility, perseverance, and studiousness in solving problems in a technological world.
Bijoy Misra
Lincoln, MA
December 3, 2012.
Dr. Bijoy Misra studied a year junior to Nagabhusan in Ravenshaw Collegiatre School. Bijoy associated with Nagabhusan in organizing the Ravenshaw Collegiate Science Club. He rejoined Nagbahusan at MIT in 1974.
He is a physicist and in the Facultry at Harvard University. He took initiative in compiling and presenting information in this website.
