PROFESSOR B.N. BASU

B. N. Basu received B. Tech., M. Tech. and Ph. D. degrees from the Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics, Calcutta University in 1965, 1966 and 1976, respectively. He superannuated as Professor and Head, Electronics Engineering Department and Coordinator of Centre of Research in Microwave Tubes at Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), now known as Indian Institute of Technology-BHU. Currently, he holds the position of Distinguished Adjunct Professor at the Supreme Knowledge Foundation Group of Institutions (SKFGI) in Mankundu, West Bengal, India. Previously, he worked at Regional Institute of Technology (now known as National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur; CSIR-Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CEERI), Pilani, India; and DRDO-Defence Electronics Research Laboratory, Hyderabad, India. He was in the team responsible for the development of the first travelling-wave tube (TWT) in India at CEERI, Pilani. He and his students took a lead in the design and development of state-of-art microwave vacuum electron devices for the first time in India, for instance, coupled-cavity TWT, high-power gridded helix-TWT, micro-TWT, space-TWT, gyrotron, and so on.
Professor Basu, while at BHU evolved a proposal for developing the first gyrotron in India, and Professor RK Jha, also of BHU, moved this proposal to the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India for its furtherance. Based on this move, DST sanctioned a multi-institutional project in which the first ever gyrotron in India for fusion plasma heating was sanctioned and Professor Basu took a pivotal role as a member of the Steering Committee of DST in the successful completion of the project that led to the first gyrotron developed in India.
Professor Basu was a Distinguished Visiting Scientist of CSIR at CEERI, Pilani and consultant to DRDO – Microwave Tube Research and Development Centre, Bangalore. He co-chaired with the ISRO Director a committee for monitoring a project at CEERI-Pilani for the indigenous development of a class of space-qualified TWTs for ISRO-SAC-Ahmedabad. He played a pivotal role in establishing MOUs (i) between Department of Electronics Engineering, IIT-BHU and CSIR-CEERI, Pilani; (ii) between Seoul National University and CSIR-CEERI, Pilani; and (iii) between SKFGI, Mankundu and CSIR-CEERI, Pilani. He serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications (JEMWA) (Taylor and Francis), and he guest-edited Issue 17, Vol. 31, 2017 (Special Issue) of JEMWA. Professor Basu took visiting assignments abroad at Lancaster University, UK; Seoul National University, Korea; Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany; and University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu. He was President of Vacuum Electronic Devices and Applications Society, India of which he is one of the founders. He established the renowned WhatsApp group “Thinkers in Vacuum Electron Devices”. Professor Basu has authored (or co-authored) more than 130 research papers in journals of international repute (including more than 45 in IEEE Transactions) and 8 monograph chapters in the area of vacuum electron devices (microwave tubes). He has authored 6 books: (i) Electromagnetic Theory and Applications in Beam-Wave Electronics (World Scientific, Singapore/ New Jersey/ London/ Hong Kong, 1996), (ii) Technical Writing (Prentice-Hall of India, New Delhi, 2007), (iii) Engineering Electromagnetics Essentials (Universities Press, Hyderabad, 2015) (distributed by Orient Blackswan, India), (iv) High Power Microwave Tubes: Basics and Trends, Vol. 1, (v) Ibid Vol. 2, Morgan & Claypool Publishers, California, USA with IOP Publishing, Bristol, UK, 2018), besides (vi) his autobiography in Bengali: Chhoriye Chhitiye Muhoortogulo (Rupam Prakashani, Kolkata, India, 2023). Professor Basu served on the very first Technical Committee on Vacuum Electronic Devices of the IEEE Electron Devices Society. He is the recipient of the SVC Aiya Memorial Award of IETE, India (1999); Lifetime Achievement Award of the Vacuum Electronic Devices and Application Society, India (2014); Microwave Pioneer Award of International Symposium of Microwaves, India (2016); Lifetime Achievement Award of the IETE, India (2021) and John R. Pierce Award of the IEEE Electron Devices Society, USA (2023) (the first ever from India).