Prakash Chandra Sood

Prakash Chandra Sood is a nuclear physicist who, alongside his research, has spent much of his career building scientific institutions. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2023 in the field of literature and education, from Andhra Pradesh ^[1].

A quick doctorate

Sood was born on 1 October 1928 and went to DAV schools and college in Jalandhar before taking an MSc with honours from Punjab University in 1952 ^[2]. After three years teaching in Punjab government colleges he went to the United States, where he finished a PhD at Florida State University in January 1958, in just over two years ^[2].

Twenty-nine years at BHU

After a short spell at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, he moved to Banaras Hindu University, where he worked for 29 years as teacher, administrator and builder of new facilities ^[2]. In the early 1970s he set up the university’s first nuclear research laboratory based on a Van de Graaff accelerator ^[2]. He then built BHU’s first computer centre and was its founding director from 1978 to 1983, brought computer science into the university’s regular courses, and served as dean of science and head of computer science in 1985–87 ^[2].

He was closely involved, from planning to commissioning, in two national research centres: the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre in Calcutta and the Nuclear Science Centre in New Delhi, the first inter-university centre of its kind backed by the University Grants Commission, now the Inter-University Accelerator Centre ^[2].

Research and teaching abroad

He has published 320 research papers and worked with 67 universities and laboratories in India and 62 institutions in 12 other countries ^[2]. He was a senior associate of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste and a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences from 1978 ^[2]. Since retiring he has been an honorary professor at the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning in Puttaparthi ^[2].