Discussion journal of the Mössbauer Community

[Vijayendra Garg <vijgarg AT gmail.com>]

79th Birth day of professor Satya Pal Puri - one of the earliest Mossbauer
                       Spectroscopist of India

On 30th January, 1930, just a day before the first anniversary of Nobel 
laureate Ruolf L. Mössbauer, Professor Satya Pal Puri was born in a small 
family in rural India. His parents and especially his mother, desired very 
fervently that he should he devote to his eduation. With his introspective 
bent of mind and incisive attitude, he will assess the outcome of any step 
before venturing it. It is his wont to attend to the job in hand with 
consummate attention and a single track mind and as a consequence he could 
win laurels in his academic career throughout.  He had uninterrupted 
university positions throughout. Furthermore, it is his wife who gave him 
complete support and encouragement to pursue his scientific career 
relentlessly. They are blessed with three brilliant sons who are 
successful in their respective careers and are a source of strength to the 
family.  In no lesser measure, he attributes his success to the 
contributions made by a band of dedicated students, who are distinguished 
professionals in their own right.
      His other interests include reading literature, poetry, philosophy 
and biographies of great men. He always considered the wisdom lore of the 
world as his inheritance and his privilege to drink deep the cup of 
consolation. Prof. S. P. Puri, has been Emeritus Fellow, was Professor and 
Chairman, Department of Physics, Panjab University, Chandigarh.  Earlier, 
Reader in Physics at University of Roorkee and Professor and Head, Dept. 
of Physics, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana.  He received his 
M.Sc.(Hons. School) in physics from Panjab University in1953 and Ph.D. 
from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh in1956, under Prof.  P S Gill. 
He had uninterrupted university positions throughout his academic career 
and was awarded an I C I fellowship by the National Institute of Sciences, 
New Delhi. He did his postdoctoral research at Bartol Research Foundation, 
Swarthmore PA (U.S.A.), and later joined University of Alabama (U.S.A.) 
as a Visiting Asst Prof.  of Physics.  He visited the school of Quantum 
Chemistry, University of Uppsala, Sweden, in addition to visiting numerous 
universities and research institutes in erstwhile USSR. He was one of the 
earliest in the INDIA to establish the studies of Nuclear Gamma-Ray 
Resonance (Mössbauer Effect) in Roorkee in 1963 and established an active 
school of research and a number of students got their Ph.D.  degrees. 
With the help of motivated students, he could make valuable contributions 
to the studies of EFG tensors in single crystals and other diverse studies 
of minerals and chemical compounds.  His other special fields of interest 
include Crystal Field and Molecular orbital theories.  Professor Puri has 
been a dedicated driving force for improvement of quality education at 
university level in India. He has written many text books, published by 
Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, New Delhi and Macmillan (India), for 
the physics graduate students.
      His students are planning his 80th Birth day celebration at Indian 
institute of Technology at Roorkee where Professor Puri undertook to write 
the one of the most important chapters of the development of Mössbauer 
spectroscopy in third world.

Vijayendra K Garg
Institute of Physics
University of Brasilia,
Brasilia, DF, Brazil