Draft:Samar Chatterje

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Samar Chatterjee
Samar Chatterjee
Born(1942-09-24)24 September 1942
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India
Citizenship India
Alma materIndian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Samar Chatterjee (born September 24, 1942) is an Indian-born environmental scientist and engineer who has contributed to the scientific understanding of Recycling of the Radioactive Scrap Metals[1][2] world wide as well as in the United States of America. He is also a naturalized citizen of the United States and has theorized on enhanced recycling and reuse of all major solid wastes components, including construction and demolition solid wastes.[3][4] He has presented papers on understanding and the utilization of advanced technologies for recycling radioactively contaminated metals.[5][6]

He has made many unique contributions in the pursuit of entrepreneurship, professional excellence, and service of the society at large.[7]

Early life and Education[edit]

Chatterjee was born on September 24, 1942 at Varanasi, India. His father Nirmal C. Chatterjee at the time served as a key Mechanical Engineer at India's Ordinance Factory in Jabalpur. His mother Renuka was a rare woman with an university degree at the time who chose to serve her family as a housewife. He was sent to a boarding school at St Michael High School in Patna at the age of five. After a few years, when his father was transferred from the Ordinance Factory at Ichhapur, Bengal to Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, he was moved to Kanpur to be tutored at home so that he could be admitted to a school teaching in Hindi language. He completed his High School education in 1957 with honors receiving a merit scholarship through the U.P. Board of Education, and subsequently the Intermediate Certificate (Class 12) in 1959 with the same institution. Thereafter, he took up the study of Physics/Chemistry/Mathematics at the VSSD College for a Bachelor's Degree. However, in August, 1960, he terminated his study of the Pure Sciences in favor of Engineering as he was selected by the newly constituted Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, or IITK.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Technology Degree in Engineering in April, 1965, qualifying with a high distinction to be awarded the Best Outgoing Undergraduate Medal at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India. He was also a recipient of the institute's Merit Scholarship awarded for outstanding performance in academic studies. He was elected the Student President of the IIT Kanpur Gymkhana during 1964-65, highlighting his understanding of the issues concerning the management of students' affairs at this India's Ivy League University.

He further received in 1969 a National Research Council Fellowship at the University of Ottawa in Ottawa, Canada, where he studied and obtained a Master's degree in Water Resources Engineering. He successfully completed a research thesis on the "Investigation of Dam Safety" in fulfillment of the M. A. Sc. Degree as well as for a Research Project sponsored by the Environmental Division of the Canada Department of Energy, Mines & Resources, which later became the Canada Department of Environment.

He was then offered a National Science Foundation Fellowship at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, for study and research dedicated to obtaining a Doctoral Degree in Environmental Engineering & Water Resources Systems Analysis. His work at Chapel Hill, NC, was so well recognized by the Battelle Laboratories in Columbus, OH, that he was drafted in 1973 to work on the research projects relating to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Model at Battelle Labs. As a result, he worked on his Doctoral Thesis at the Ohio State University in Columbus, OH.

He was awarded a Doctoral Degree in Environmental Engineering from Ohio State University in 1980, where he submitted his research thesis on "Recycling Radioactively Contaminated Metals" based on a project funded by the DOE.

Early Career[edit]

His first job was at Calcutta, India, with a consulting and design firm named Chatterjee & Polk, on Park Street. He worked on the Gorakhpur Fertilizer Factory. In addition, he was also appointed as the Sub-Divisional Officer with the Uttar Pradesh Water Corporation (The U.P. Jal Nigam) at Allahabad, India, from 1966-69 to help develop several rural water supply and sanitation projects, funded by the World Bank, to provide the much needed drought relief facilities for the villages located in the Meja, Karchhana and Naugarh Tehsils. Thus began his career in Sanitary Engineering, which later evolved into a more amorphous field of Environmental Engineering.

Scientific research[edit]

In September 1969, he was invited to Canada as a research fellow at the University of Ottawa to participate in their Graduate Research Program devoted to Environmental Protection that was funded by the National Research Council. He completed a Master's Degree in Water Resources Engineering as well as developed a comprehensive research thesis on the "Investigation of Dam Failures" based on a review of data on about 400 important dam failures, disaster modes and frequencies, and estimated damages due to such disasters. This research contributed significantly to the evolution, improvement and development of the American, Canadian and European Dam Safety Programs.[8][9][10][11][12]

Furthermore, his extensive work on dam safety led to the development of new and improved perspectives with respect to the human dimensions of managing dams and reservoirs, which thereby focused on the probabilistic methods of minimizing failures and resulting damage costs, as detailed in the two important articles in the Water Power journals.[13][14] Thus, the engineers responsible for the design of dams and reservoirs began to work closely with economists and behavioural scientists on important dam safety issues in order to help alleviate damage potential of such structures.

Chatterjee was subsequently invited to join Canada's Department of Energy Mines & Resources to work on issues like sociological aspects of water development, beneficial uses of thermal discharges, and modelling water resources systems. In 1972, he was invited to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill to carry out research in areas such as environmental impact assessment, sociological aspects of water development, and health effects of air pollution as a research fellow, supported by funding from the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C..

During this assignment, he completed a Master's Degree in Environmental Planning & Management at the UNC as well as developing a research report entitled "Sociological Aspects of Water Development: A Literature Review", which was published by the Policy Research and Coordination Branch, Department of Environment, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.[15] This report found that the past decisions to develop water resources systems were primarily based on engineering and economic feasibilities, without any consideration of sociological feasibility except in a very broad sense. It further documented in substantive detail the significant sociological implications that emanated from many past water resources developments, and argued that water resources decisions ought to be primarily social ones, and that success or failure of any such developments should not only be judged by its techno-economic excellence but also by its impact on people. The report also suggested that the foremost factor in the success of any water management program is the public understanding and acceptance of any water development program.[16] This new major research finding led to significant changes in the future water resources planning processes and became the corner-stone of various modern institutionalised public participation programs that are now incorporated in the planning of most major development projects or programs requiring environmental impact assessment and subsequent public participation before final decision-making.[17]

His earlier research contributions at the Battelle Laboratories in Columbus, Ohio, USA, included work on construction and demolition wastes which led to two research documents developed for the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (Champaign, Illinois) (CERL) of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The first report consolidated and expanded the current state of the art of construction solid wastes management predictive criteria.[18] The second research report developed the basis for the current state of the art of demolition solid wastes management predictive criteria.[19] Both documents were initially published in the CERL Research Report Series as N-14 and N-15; the revised and peer reviewed versions of these research documents were subsequently published by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) of the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, DC, USA.

He was also the Senior Research Engineer at the Battelle Laboratories in Columbus, Ohio. He also pioneered the development of the world renowned Battelle Environmental Evaluation System(BEES) Model, that has been extensively employed for Environmental Impact Assessment and Analysis throughout the world. He has provided leadership and participation in many major EIA studies that helped environmentally sound decision making with respect to several major projects/programs, such as the James Bay Development Program in Canada, Cross-Florida Barge Canal in Florida USA, LNG Storage & Transportation Project in South Carolina, Mobile Alabama Deepwater Super-Port & Petrochemical Complex, etc.[7]

From 1990 to 1993, he served as a research consultant with the United States Department of Energy(USDOE) investigating the potential for recycling radioactive scrap metals (RSM) originating from various USDOE sites devoted to the development of nuclear weapons. Substantial technical data developed during this study showed that melt refining and recycling of RSM can be performed cost effectively for restricted use items like shielding barriers, hazardous waste containers, steel rebars for industrial facilities, weapons components, and selected industrial equipments and structures. This study also investigated several new technologies, such as molten salt decontamination process, molten metal electro refining, laser induced separation (LIS), and accelerator transmutation of waste (ATW), in order to identify and establish currently available best practicable technology (BPT) for RSM decontamination and recycling in the United States. The results of these studies have been documented in the peer reviewed journals of the American Nuclear Society.[20] As a result of these significant contributions, he was awarded the Doctoral Degree by the Ohio State University as well as the Walden University. Additional details of these studies have been summarized and reported in other important peer reviewed journal articles.

From 2002 to 2015, he has worked extensively on various issues relating to Nanotechnology and its application to Waste Management from the perspective of waste minimization. In December 2009, he produced a ground breaking report on "Achieving Waste Minimization Employing Nanotechnology" for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the SAFE Foundation in Washington, DC.. The report focused on reducing the quantity and quality of the wastes produced by waste treatment processes as well as modifying manufacturing processes to recycle wastes generated and/or reduce the impact of disposable wastes. This report was based on the findings of the projects that were identified and documented for implementation in the USEPA report on "Nanotechnology for Site Remediation: Fact Sheet" that was published in October, 2008. The results of this ground breaking study by Chatterjee and Lewinski (2009) was presented at an International Waste Minimization Conference in Atlanta, GA, on December, 2010. Further research and study on this topic were also reported to International Conference on Environmental Protection at IIT Kanpur, India, as well as at the QEEN Conference, Sponsored by the National Nanotechnology Initiatives, in Washington, DC, in June, 2015. The relevant papers and reports are referenced below after citation 28.

Corporate career[edit]

He rescued two companies from bankruptcy and then made them profitable. The first, Tata Risk Management Services(TRMS), a subsidiary of Tata Sons Ltd. In 1993, TRMS ran huge losses as an Industrial Safety management company. As its General Manager, he directed and diversified the company as an Environmental Services and Safety Audit consulting services and made it a very profitable subsidiary of Tata Sons within five years and helped to sell it for a big profit to the American Insurance conglomerate, the AIG. This was a major Trans-Atlantic entrepreneurial achievement, at a time when India was just going global.

As General Manager of the Tata Risk Management Services in India, he was a pioneer in strongly emphasizing and encouraging the use of environmental analyses and impact assessment in the initial planning and development of industrial projects and associated crucial site selection process.[21] The Business Insurance magazine called it the "Charge of the Green Brigade". The editors of the Economic Times Mumbai[22] described the best environmental management practices (BEMP) for the Integrated Steel Plants (ISP), developed by Samar Chatterjee, as an effective solution for pollution management in India. His innovative proposals to implement and expand the new coal injection technology, to help reduce the quantity of coke required in the operation of the blast furnaces, greatly reduced the pollution emissions to the environment as well as achieved one hundred percent slag granulation at selected steel plants in India.

Once again, he was able to perform a very similar feat with another North American small business unit, the International Technology Transfer (ITT), early in the new millennium. The ITT Ltd was a small environmental consulting firm in Chicago, with a Joint Venture parent company in Canada. The firm was running at a loss when it was taken over for restructuring under a new management. He directed the greening of the firm, with effective marketing and diversification of its services, that led to greater profitability and a stable customer base for the firm. The firm has now been acquired by a major Canada based Conglomerate.

As a member of Water Environment Federation (WEF) Research Committee, Samar Chatterjee developed the literature reviewed journal Annual State of the Art reports on Wastewater Collection from 1977 to 1981. These were published in the Journal of Water Pollution Control Federation.[23][24][25][26]

Advocacy[edit]

He aggressively pursued the service of the society at large in his new “avatar” since 2000. In Chicago, with deep dismay and due to shocking revelations, he had discovered with intense chagrins the basic lack of societal justice, peace and human rights, even in the United States of America, that have often hypocritically challenged the world on such human rights issues. He uncovered the intense crying need for the enforcement of the basic human rights principles and policies also in America. America had just revealed to him its frightening deep dark side of the Moon.

He theorizes that despite the claims of the U.S. elite[who?] that American democracy is the best system for achieving social justice and peace throughout the world, America had been the most prolific purveyor of violence in the world, as proclaimed by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1960s, and it has continued to be to this day.

Crime in America has been, statistically speaking, by far much greater than most other countries of the world. At the same time, policing, law enforcement, and the court system dealing with these crimes have also been far more brutal than in most countries of the world. Punishment of crimes in America continues to be in blatant violation of the UN Code of Human Rights. A study of the crime and punishment situation in the American context[which?] had led him to conclude that the worsening crime situation in USA is directly linked to the brutality of its law enforcement modus operandi.

Based on his findings, he has strongly advocated focused implementation of the Human Rights policies and strategies in the United States. He has advocated and agitated for the restoration of the constitutional freedoms

He actively participated in and helped organize many anti-war protests in the United States thru Lake Street Church in Evanston, IL, and in Washington, DC. He has also led major initiatives in the Peace & Justice Committees of his church to speak out in support of the victims of Police brutality and also those who have been subjected to injustice by the Courts in the United States of America. He has protested against the war in Vietnam, invasion of Lebanon, invasion of Iraq, and the invasion of Afghanistan.

He has advocated serious punishment for the Prosecutors and Judges for false indictment and imprisonment of people and minorities on trumped up charges in the U. S.. He has also advocated severe punishment for Police brutality and violation of Human Rights by Law Enforcement officials. His motto: “We should certainly refuse to allow our State Terrorists to declare an open season in persecuting the accused members of our society".[27]

Awards[edit]

He was awarded the Best Outgoing Undergraduate medal of the Pioneering Batch (1960–65) by the Dept of Civil Engg at IIT Kanpur.

On account of achievements early in his career, he was recognized by the Rotary Club of Allahabad and awarded Research Fellowship for foreign study in December, 1967. Soon thereafter, the National Research Council of Canada conferred on him their outstanding Water Resources Research Fellowship at the University of Ottawa in June, 1968. Subsequently, he was also awarded the National Science Foundation's coveted Environmental Management Fellowship for conducting multi-media research at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, under the guidance of Professor Maynard Hufschmidt of the Harvard Water Program, during 1972-73 conclave.

Biography[edit]

The most substantive information on the life and contributions of Samar Chatterjee has been investigated and corroborated in a recent study by Khemani.[28] The study presents a balanced review and verification of the achievements summarized in this biography.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Radioactive Scrap Metal(RSM) Recycling: An Assessment", In Proceedings of HAZMACON '92, Assoc of Bay Area Governments, Long Beach, Ca, Authors: Herman Moore of USDOE & Samar Chatterjee of Dynamac Corp, March–April, 1992, pp. 224-34.
  2. ^ "RSM Recycling Technologies", Proceedings of U. S. Dept of Energy Nuclear Waste Conference, Idaho National Laboratory, Authors: Samar Chatterjee & Herman Moore, 1993.
  3. ^ "Predictive Criteria for Construction & Demolition Solid Wastes", Authors: Samar Chatterjee & Ravi Jain, Report N-14, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory(CERL), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Champaign, IL, 1976
  4. ^ "Recycling Construction & Demolition Solid Wastes", Authors: Samar Chatterjee & R.S. Murthy, Report N-15, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, Champaign, IL, 1976.
  5. ^ "Recycling Radioactively Contaminated Metals", Paper Presented at the IAEA/OECD/NEA Conference, Paris, France, 1991.
  6. ^ "Radiactive Scrap Metals Recycling: A DOE White Paper", Paper Presented at the ICRP Conference, Salamanca, Spain, 1992.
  7. ^ a b Hinds, C., et al., "Biography of Samar Chatterjee", SAFE Research Newsletter, SAFE Foundation, Washington, DC, September, 2009.
  8. ^ I. D. Cluckie, and Pessoa, M. L., "Dam Safety: An Evaluation of Design Flood Estimation", Hydrological Sciences- Journal -des Sciences Hydrologiques, Vol. 35, No. 5, October, 1990, pp. 547-569.
  9. ^ FEMA, "The National Dam Safety Program: Research Needs Workshop", Conference Report, U. S. Department of Homeland Security, Washington, DC, October 17–19, 2000, 261 pages.
  10. ^ USCOLD, "Anthology of Dam Modification Case Studies", Research Report, U. S. Committee on Dam Safety, Washington, DC, 1996, 38 pages.
  11. ^ Larry Roth, "Testimony of the ASCE Before Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, Emergency Management, Water Resources and Environment of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on National Levees and Dam Safety Programs", Technical Report, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Washington, DC, May 8, 2007, 7 pages.
  12. ^ Charles Perrow, "Normal Accidents: Living With High-Risk Technologies", Report No. ISBN 0691004129, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1999, 455 pages.
  13. ^ Chatterjee, S, and Biswas, A. K., "The Human Dimensions of Dam Safety, Part I", Water Power Journal, Vol 23, No. 12, December, 1971, pp. 446-453.
  14. ^ Chatterjee, S, and Biswas, A. K., "The Human Dimensions of Dam Safety, Part II", Water Power Journal, Vol 24, No. 1, January, 1972, pp. 17-21.
  15. ^ Chatterjee, Samar; A. K. Biswas (1971). "Sociological Aspects of Water Development: A Literature Review". Ottawa, Canada: Policy Research & Coordination Branch, Environment Canada. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  16. ^ Asit K, Biswas (1971). "Sociological Aspects of Water Development". Water Resources Bulletin - Journal of the American Water Resources Association. 7 (6): 1137. Bibcode:1971JAWRA...7.1137B. doi:10.1111/j.1752-1688.1971.tb05051.x.
  17. ^ Asit K, Biswas, et al.(1973), "Socio-Economic Considerations In Water Resources Planning", Water Resources Bulletin - Journal of the American Water Resources Association.
  18. ^ Chatterjee, S., et al., "Predictive Criteria for Construction/Demolition Solid Waste Management", Report Code: ADA034419, National Technical Information Service, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC, 1976.
  19. ^ Murthy, K.S., and Chatterjee, S., "Development of Predictive Criteria for Demolition and Construction Solid Waste Management", Report Code: ADA033646, NTIS, U.S. Dept of Commerce, Washington, DC, 1976.
  20. ^ Chatterjee, S., and Moore, H., "New Technologies for Recycling Radioactive Scrap Metals: A Technical Overview," Proceedings of the International Topical Meeting on Nuclear & Hazardous Waste Management, SPECTRUM '92, August 23–27, 1992, American Nuclear Society, La Grange Park, IL, 1993, pages 444-449.
  21. ^ Sameera Khan, "Global Focus on Environmental Liabilities: Indian Industry Faces Cleanup Pressures," Business Insurance, October 2, 1995, page G1.
  22. ^ Editors, "The Integrated Steel Plants: Pollution Management Effective Solutions", The Economic Times Mumbai, June 5, 1996, The Indian Steel Supplement
  23. ^ Chatterjee, S., Smith, R. W., and Bhutani, J. S., "Wastewater Collection", Journal Water Pollution Control Federation, June, 1978, pp. 1139-1149.
  24. ^ Chatterjee, S., Durham, D. G., and Bhutani, J. S., "Wastewater Collection", Journal Water Pollution Control Federation, June, 1979, pp. 1242-1250.
  25. ^ Chatterjee, S., and Wilcox, J., "Wastewater Collection", Journal Water Pollution Control Federation, June, 1980, pp. 1232-1241.
  26. ^ Chatterjee, S., and Heuer, T., "Wastewater Collection", Journal Water Pollution ControlFederation, June, 1981, pp. 748-750.
  27. ^ Maru, S., et al, "A History of SAFE Foundation", SAFE Research Newsletter, SAFE Foundation, Washington, DC, October, 2009.
  28. ^ Khemani, P. K., "Profiles of IITK Pioneers", Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, January, 2010.
  • Chatterjee, S., et al, "Nanotechnology for Waste Minimization", Paper Presented at the QEEN International Conference, Sponsored by National Nanotechnology Initiatives, Washington, DC. June, 2015.
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