Kunchithapadam Gopalan

Kunchithapadam Gopalan (born 1938) is an Indian geochronologist and an emeritus scientist at National Geophysical Research Institute.[1] He is known for his studies on the chronologies of critical rock suites of the Indian subcontinent[2] and is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences,[3] Indian National Science Academy,[4] Indian Geophysical Union and the National Academy of Sciences, India.[5] 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 for his contributions to earth, atmosphere, ocean and planetary sciences in 1982.[6]

Kunchithapadam Gopalan
Born (1938-08-12) 12 August 1938
Tamil Nadu, India
NationalityIndian
Alma mater
Known forStudies on the chronologies of rock suites of the Indian subcontinent
Awards
  • 1982 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize
  • 1982 Krishnan Medal
  • 1991 Eminent Mass Spectrometrist Award
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Doctoral advisor

Biography
University of Madras entrance

K. Gopalan, born on 12 August 1938 in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, graduated in physics (Bsc hons) from the University of Madras in 1959 and completed his master's degree in nuclear physics from Andhra University in 1960, standing first in the university.[4] Enrolling at the Indian Institute of Science for his doctoral studies, he secured a PhD in 1966, working under the guidance of V. S. Venkatasubramanian and moved to the University of California, Los Angeles where he did his postdoctoral studies at the laboratory of George Wetherill on meteorites and lunar samples. On his return to India, he joined Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in 1970 but moved to Physical Research Laboratory in 1973. His next move was to the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) where he served for the rest of his career and after his superannuation in 1998, he continues his association with the institute as its emeritus scientist.[1]

Legacy
The Sea of Tranquility of the Moon

After his early studies on meteorites and lunar samples, Gopalan's focus shifted during his PRL days to geochronology. His work has been primarily in the field of geochronology and he is known to have conducted extensive studies on the chronologies of several critical rock suites of the Indian subcontinent for which he developed custom-built equipment.[7] He worked on the precambrian Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh using Rb-Sr dating techniques with mass spectrometer as well as the volcanic rocks of the Deccan plateau and his researches have assisted in a wider understanding of the ages of solid bodies in the solar system and basaltic volcanism in Mare Tranquillitatis. He is credited with the setting up of a mass spectrometer, a facility for Argon–argon dating of rocks, and an isotope facility at Physical Research Laboratory, a geochronology laboratory at National geophysical Research Institute and an Accelerator Mass Spectrometer for radiocarbon dating at the Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, the first such facility in India. His studies have been detailed in several peer reviewed articles;[8][note 1] a number of them have been listed by online article repositories such as ResearchGate[9] and Google Scholar.[10] He has been associated with many science journals including the Academy Proceedings in Earth and Planetary Sciences as a member of their editorial boards[11] and has delivered several invited or plenary lectures.[12][13] His work has been cited by many authors[14][15][16] and he has also mentored 8 doctoral scholars in their studies.[4]

Awards and honours

Gopalan, a Fulbright scholar during this doctoral studies, received the Krishnan Medal of the Indian Geophysical Union in 1982.[17] The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards, the same year.[18] He was awarded the Eminent Mass Spectrometrist Award of the Indian Society for Mass Spectrometry in 1991.[19] The Indian Academy of Sciences elected him as a fellow in 1986, followed by Indian National Science Academy in 1986, Indian Geophysical Union in 1988 and the National Academy of Sciences, India in 1992.[5]

Selected bibliography
  • K. Gopalan; J. R. Trivedi; M. N. Balasubrahmanyan; S. K. Ray; C. Anjaneya Sastry (September 1979). "Rb-Sr Chronology of the Khetri Copper Belt, Rajasthan". Geological Society of India. 20 (9).
  • R. Murari; P. Krishnamurthy; P. I. Tikhonenko; K. Gopalan (December 1993). "Magnesian Ilmenites in Picrite Basalts from Siberian and Deccan Traps—Additional Mineralogical Evidence for Primary Melt Compositions(?)". Mineralogical Magazine. 57 (389): 733–735. doi:10.1180/minmag.1993.057.389.18.
  • Kunchithapadam Gopalan; J. Douglas Macdougall; Christopher Macisaac (September 2007). "High Precision Determination of 48Ca/42Ca Ratio by TIMS for Ca Isotope Fractionation Studies". Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research. 31 (3): 227–236. doi:10.1111/j.1751-908X.2007.00847.x.
  • K. Gopalan (April 2013). "A Simple Chemical Resistant Hotplate for Geochemical Applications". Geological Society of India. 81 (4).
  • K. Gopalan; A. Kumar; S. Kumar; B. Vijayagopal (August 2013). "Depositional history of the Upper Vindhyan succession, central India: Time constraints from Pb–Pb isochron ages of its carbonate components". Precambrian Research. 233: 108–117. doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2013.04.014.
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See also

Notes
  1. Please see Selected bibliography section

References
  1. "Emeritus Scientists". Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 April 2010.
  2. "Brief Profile of the Awardee". Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
  3. "Fellow profile". Indian Academy of Sciences. 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
  4. "Indian fellow". Indian National Science Academy. 2016.
  5. "NASI fellows" (PDF). National Academy of Sciences, India. 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 August 2015.
  6. "View Bhatnagar Awardees". Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
  7. "Handbook of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Winners" (PDF). Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. 1999. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  8. "Browse by Fellow". Indian Academy of Sciences. 2016.
  9. "ResearchGate". On ResearchGate. 2016.
  10. "On Google Scholar". Google Scholar. 2016.
  11. Academy Proceedings in Earth and Planetary Sciences. Indian Academy of Sciences. 2004.
  12. "Lectures by Visiting Scientists". Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology. 2016.
  13. "Evaluative Report of the Department" (PDF). University of Calcutta. 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  14. R. H. Mitchell (2004). 8th International Kimberlite Conference: Selected Papers. Gulf Professional Publishing. pp. 548–. ISBN 978-0-444-51775-3.
  15. Sanchaya: Bibliography of Indian Geology. Geological Society of India. 1991.
  16. V. C. Thakur (1992). Geology of Western Himalaya. Pergamon Press.
  17. "Krishnan Medal". Indian Geophysical Union. 2016.
  18. "Earth Sciences". Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. 2016. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016.
  19. "Eminent Mass Spectrometrist Award". Indian Society for Mass Spectrometry. 2016.

Further reading
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