Bidyendu Mohan Deb

A guest scholar of the Kyoto University in 1989 and an honorary professor of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research from 1992 to 2004, he received the Sir C. V. Raman Award in Physical Sciences of the University Grants Commission of India in 1988, Biennial Professor S. R. Palit Memorial Award of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science in 1995 and the FICCI Award in Physical Sciences in 1996. He is also a recipient of the Silver Medal (2000) and the Gold Medal (2015) of the Chemical Research Society of India. The list of award orations he has delivered include Linus Pauling Memorial Lecture of Mahatma Gandhi University (1996), Professor Sadhan Basu Memorial Lecture of the Indian National Science Academy (1999), Mitra Memorial Lecture of Delhi University (2000), A. V. Rama Rao Foundation Lecture of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (2003), Distinguished Lectures and Institute/University colloquia at a number of national institutions including Panjab University Colloquium of 2016. The Indian Academy of Sciences elected him as a fellow in 1984 and he became a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy in 1987. He is also an elected fellow of The World Academy of Sciences and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. In 2019, Deb was conferred a Life-time Achievement Award from the Indian Chemical Society (estd. 1924) and received this at the Annual Convention of Chemists, Raipur, India.

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded Deb the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1981.

Deb started his career which spanned across several institutions at Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science as a CSIR pool officer in 1969 but a year later, moved to the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai as a member of faculty. In 1971, he was appointed as an assistant professor at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani but after a brief stint of one year, he returned to IIT Mumbai where he spent the next 12 years, serving as an assistant professor (1973–78) and as a professor (1978–84). His next move was to Panjab University as the professor of theoretical chemistry in 1984 and after a service of two decades he superannuated from there in 2004. Post-retirement, he moved to S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata as ISRO Vikram Sarabhai Research Professor under the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore. In 2007, he took up an Adjunct/Visiting Professorship at the newly established Indian Institute for Science Education and Research, Kolkata. Currently, he serves as an INSA Senior Scientist and Honorary Scholar-in-Residence at Visva-Bharati University.

Bidyendu Mohan Deb (born 1942) is an Indian theoretical chemist, chemical physicist and a professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata (IISER). he is known for his studies in theoretical chemistry and chemical physics. He is an elected fellow of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, The World Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Sciences. 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, in 1981, for his contributions to chemical sciences.

B. M. Deb, born on 27 September 1942 in the Indian state of Bengal when the pre-independent India was going through the Quit India movement, graduated in chemistry (BSc hons) from Presidency College, Kolkata (present-day Presidency University) and completed his master's degree from the Rajabazar Science College, with physical chemistry as the principal subject. Subsequently, he joined S. R. Palit at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) and after a year, he moved to the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford on a Commonwealth scholarship from where he passed the Diploma in Advanced Mathematics. Continuing at the institution, he did his doctoral research under Charles Coulson, a pioneer of quantum theory of matter, to secure a DPhil in mathematics.