By SK.Vyas :
Chandigarh October 6, 2019 : Panjab University is sad with the demise of one of its iconic and world
renowned scientist Prof.Dharam Vir Singh Jain in the early hours of Sunday, 6th October
2019 in PGI.
Prof. Jain was born in Hansi, in erstwhile Punjab on 16th June 1933. He
obtained B.Sc. (Hons.), M.Sc. in Chemistry from University of Delhi, M.S. and Ph.D. in
Mathematics (1954-58) from the University of Southern California, USA. Prof. D V S Jain and
Prof. S. V. Kessar were Ph.D. scholars at University of Southern California at the same
time. He returned to India in 1958 and joined as Lecturer, University of Delhi, moved
to PU as Reader (1963), subsequently became Professor in Department of Chemistry,
Panjab University, Chandigarh. He served as Director, Regional sophisticated
Instrumentation Centre (1985-87 & 1992-95) and INSA senior scientist (1996-2001). He
was serving as Professor Emeritus and INSA Honorary Scientist at Chemistry Department,
Panjab University.
Prof.D.V.S. Jain worked in several areas of physical and theoretical chemistry.
His major scientific contributions included understanding the thermodynamic and
transport properties of binary mixtures of short-chain n-alkanes. He published over 150
research papers in international journals, written 7 books and edited 2 books. He was
member of Editorial boards of a number of journals and publication committee of the
IUPAC. He supervised 24 Ph.D. scholars and over 50 M.Sc./M.Phil.
Prof. Jain was the recipient of S.R.Patil Award, J.C.Ghosh Award, K.S.G. Doss
Award, R. P.Mitra Award, a Silver medal of CRSI, Platinum Jubilee Lecture of ISCA and
Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary lecture of INSA. He was Fellow of all the three
national Science Academies of India. As Fellow of Indian National Science Academy,
he served as its Editor of Publications (1987-90), and its Secretary-1994-96.
Prof. Jain donated a sum of Rs. 50 lakhs to set up Smt. Premlata Jain and Prof.
D.V.S. Jain Research Foundation at Department of Chemistry, Panjab University. This
the foundation has been created for the promotion of scientific research in Panjab
University. Prof. Jain was an able administrator and served as a nominated member of
the Panjab University Senate from 2012-2019. He also co-authored (with Dr V K Anand)
the biography of the Panjab University titled ‘The Flight of Phoenix’ in the
commemorative 125th Birth year of the University.
With the passing away of Prof. D V S Jain, the nation has lost an eminent
scientist.
