Mrinal Kumar Das Gupta

Who was Mrinal Kumar Das Gupta?

Mrinal Kumar Das Gupta was a noted Indian astronomer. He was born in erstwhile Barishal district. He received his B.Sc and M.Sc degrees in Physics from Dhaka University in 1944 and 1945 respectively. Later he joined the department of Radio Physics and Electronics of the University of Calcutta as a researcher. In 1954, he obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Manchester. Later he became the head of the department of the Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics, Calcutta University. Das Gupta worked with Robert Hanbury Brown and Roger Jennison, in building the first intensity interferometers at radio wavelength in the early 1950s and measured the apparent angular structures of two radio sources, Cygnus A and Cassiopeia A. Das Gupta was elected as the Fellow of the National Academy of Science in 1974 by the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi and as the Fellow of the Academy of Science by Indian Academy of Science, Bangalore. He died on 28 November 2005 in Kolkata.