Asok Kumar Barua

Asok Kumar Barua was born on 1 July 1936[5] in Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal.[1] He did his schooling at Hare School and graduated in Physics with honours from the Presidency College, Kolkata.[1][6] His masters studies were at the Rajabazar Science College, Kolkata University (1956) after which he secured his PhD[5] in 1960[6] from the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) under the guidance of Professor B. N. Srivastava.[1] After completing his post doctoral research in USA, he started his career in 1964 by joining IACS[5] as a Reader where he became a professor in 1971,[7] a director in 1982 and worked there till 1989.[1][6][8]

Barua had done research in optics and optoelectronics and had been credited with the indigenous development of amorphous silicon (a-Si) solar cells and solar modules[6][9] including production technology and equipment.[1] He was also known to have developed a process for Radar opaque coating of aircraft canopies and windshields.[1] His researches have been documented by way of over 300 scientific papers published in peer reviewed journals of international stature.[1][3][6] He had also mentored several students in their doctoral research.[1][6][7]

An honorary professor of the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur[2] from 2010-2018,[1] Barua was an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore[10] and the West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology.[5][6][7][9][11] He had held the chair of the Research and Development committee of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission on solar photovoltaics.[1] He had been a member of the Task Force on Solar Research Initiatives set up by the Department of Science and Technology.[1][5][6][7] He had served the Asia Pacific Academy of Materials as its member,[1] the Sixth International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference as its chairman,[7] the Indian Physical Society as its president[7] and Birla Industrial and Technological Museum as the chairman of its governing council.[5][6] He was also associated with Hhv Center For Advanced Photovoltaic Technologies as an additional director.[12]

Barua received the Distinguished Materials Scientist of the Year Award in 2002 from the Materials Research Society of India.[1][6] The Government of India honoured him in 2003 with the civilian award of Padma Shri. He was also a recipient of the Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference Award from the Solar Energy Society of India[6] and ICSC-Materials Science prize of the Materials Research Society of India.[5]

On May 30, 2021 he died after being infected with COVID-19.

• "Profile on Microsoft Academic Search". Microsoft Academic Search. 2015. Archived from the original on 10 February 2015. Retrieved 9 February 2015.