Prof. GOPAL S. UPADHYAYA1939-2020, Varanasi, India Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India |
Dr. Gopal Shankar Upadhyaya was born in Varanasi, India, on June 15, 1939. His BS degree in metallurgy was obtained from Banaras Hindu University in 1960, and his MS degree in 1962 from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. He attended the Kiev Institute of Technology in Ukraine for his doctorate and completed it in 1969 under Prof. Grigorii Samsonov.
Many of his studies involved particulate composites, where metal and ceramic phases were mixed and sintered to form hard, wear-resistant materials. Other contributions focused on ferrous systems and efforts to improve sintering through additives. His son, Anish Upadhyaya, followed his example, doing his Ph.D. with Prof. Randall German at Penn State prior to returning to India where he took up the same faculty position at IIT Kanpur.
Until 1975 he was an Associate Professor at the University of Roorkee (now IIT Roorkee). He joined the Department of Metallurgical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 1976 and retired in 2001, having served as Professor and Department Chairman. He educated several students in a leading academic program in India, publishing 300papers and edited or authored 16 books.
Dr, Upadhyaya was recognized for his contributions with awards of distinction, lifetime achievement awards, and prizes such as the Niobium Metal from the Max Planck Institute, Samsonov Prize from the International Institute of Sintering, Agrawal Award of the Indian Ceramic Society, the Birla Medal from the Indian Institute of Metals, and was provided with the Samsonov Award from the Ukrainian Materials Research Society. He was also a full member of the International Institute for the Science of Sintering until his last day.
Prof. Gopal S. Upadhyaya passed away on July 19, 2020, in Varanasi, India.
taken from Sintering Science: An Historical Perspective by Randall German