Mumbai: Friends, admirers and old colleagues on Saturday bid a final farewell to former Atomic Energy Commission Chairman P K Iyengar who was cremated here today.
Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Srikumar Banerjee, NPCIL CMD S K Jain, Principal Scientific Advisor R Chidambaram, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Director R K Sinha were among those present at the cremation at the Chembur crematorium in suburban Mumbai. Iyengar, who played a key role in the first nuclear explosion in 1974, died on December 21 at the age of 80.
Former Director of the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata Bikash Sinha said Iyengar had also played a crucial role in the run-up to the 1998 nuclear tests at Pokhran by working out the details of the nuclear devices with top scientists.
"He made an almost gallant attempt to merge Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics and the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, both situated in the same campus in Kolkata," he recalled.
"The merging did not happen but he installed one common Director against all criticisms, and, that was me," said Sinha, who retired as Director recently.
He hailed Iyengar as a unique personality and "always an extraordinarily outspoken person, which made him in some quarters not a very popular person".
Iyengar provided inspiring leadership to many and it is a great loss to the community, said S S Kapoor, a retired senior nuclear scientist of BARC. Iyengar had developed a world view after a long experience of working in an atmosphere wherein external restrictions were being placed in our scientific and technical endeavours, said B A Dasannacharya, former Director, Solid State and Spectroscopy Group, BARC.
PTI