Basanta Kumar Das (ichthyologist)
Basanta Kumar Das (21 November 1899 – 6 April 1957) was an Indian fisheries zoologist. He studied air-breathing fishes and served as a professor of zoology at the Osmania University and directed research on fisheries.
Life and work
[edit]Das was born in Gangoor, Burdwan District. He studied at the government school in Allahabad before joining Muir Central College and receiving an MS in 1918. He became a lecturer in Allahabad University in 1920 and received a UP State Scholarship to study abroad. He joined Imperial College and conducted research under E.W. MacBride on studied air-breathing fishes[1][2] and received a DSc from the University of London in 1926. He became a professor of zoology at the University of Calcutta (1926-31) and then at Osmania University (1931-52). He became a director of fisheries from 1953 until his death. He was involved in the planning of the Hyderabad zoo. He presided over the Zoology section of the Indian Science Congress in 1940. He received the Huxley Memorial Prize from Imperial College in 1931.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ Das, B.K. (1928). "III. The bionomics of certain air-breathing fishes of India, together with an account of the development of their air-breathing organs". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing Papers of a Biological Character. 216 (431–439): 183–219. doi:10.1098/rstb.1928.0003. ISSN 0264-3960.
- ^ Das, B.K. (1934). "The habits and structure of Pseudapocryptes lanceolatus, a fish in the first stages of structural adaptation to aerial respiration". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing Papers of a Biological Character. 115 (795): 422–430. doi:10.1098/rspb.1934.0050. ISSN 0950-1193.
- ^ Bhimachar, B. S. (1957). "Obituary: Prof. Basant Kumar Das" (PDF). Current Science. 26 (7): 208–208.