Professor S.K. Chanda—a guiding factor in Indian sedimentology S.K. Tandon * Department of Geology, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007, India Accepted 20 August 2001 Most Indian sedimentologists would trace the beginnings of Indian sedimentology to the work of the Assam Oil in the 1930s in the northeastern part of our country. Thereafter, a few isolated efforts took place until the 1950s. Pursuing sedimentological studies in academic institutions was not common pursuit until almost a decade after India attained independence in 1947. In retrospect, this is rather surprising as the exploration for hydrocarbons was already well established, and since the founding of the Geological Survey of India in 1851, numerous coal deposits had already been located. The 1960s witnessed the emergence of sedimento- logical research at several Indian academic centres, such as the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharag- pur), Calcutta University, Jadavpur University, the Indian Statistical Institute (Calcutta), Andhra Univer- sity, Lucknow University and Punjab University. In later years, other centers emerged and some of the earlier ones declined in importance. Within this sce- nario, a strong school of sedimentology developed at Jadavpur University which continues to hold an important place today. This school at Jadavpur owes its origin and current strength to the steadfast devotion of a self taught Indian sedimentologist—Professor S.K. Chanda. Professor Sukomol Chanda was born in 1934 in Dhaka (now the capital of Bangladesh) and had his early schooling at Digboi, Assam. He later studied at the Ashutosh College, Calcutta University; and obtained the Master’s degree in Geology in 1957 from Jadavpur University. He commenced his teach- ing career in 1960 at the same university. In his early years there, Professor Chanda took up detailed field and petrographic studies of the Lameta Beds (Infra- trappean Beds) of the type area at Jabalpur. These studies (Chanda, 1963a,b, 1967) earned him the doctoral degree of Jadavpur University in 1967. Until his untimely death in 1997, Sukomol Chanda was a dominant figure in the sedimentological canvas of India for three decades, and persistently took up academic challenges, as well as the task of influencing and nurturing scores of students and younger col- leagues. Professor Chanda had an abiding interest in under- graduate and graduate education in Sedimentology. He took great care in bringing modern concepts to the notice of his students, thereby enthusing generations of students in the areas of Sedimentology and Phys- ical Stratigraphy. His unflinching devotion to the discipline of Sedimentology and his ability to influ- ence his students and co-workers is clearly visible in the steady flow of significant published contributions from 1970 onwards, both from Jadavpur University and the Geological Studies Unit of the Indian Stat- istical Institute, Calcutta. On a personal note, I met him for the first time in the later part of 1968, through the kind offices of Asru K. Chaudhuri and Dhiraj Rudro, when attending a course on Mathematical Geology at the Indian Statistical Institute. He patiently taught me to take my first steps in sandstone petrography, and helped me understand 0037-0738/02/$ - see front matter D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S0037-0738(01)00184-1 * Tel.: +91-522-213175; fax: 91-011-7666295. E-mail address: sktand@nda.vsnl.net.in (S.K. Tandon). www.elsevier.com/locate/sedgeo Sedimentary Geology 147 (2002) 9 – 11