Obituary: H.M.Ramchandra (1954 – 2024)

Abstract

Dr. H. M. Ramchandra, former Director, Training Institute, Geological Survey of India, Bangalore, passed away on 17.04.24, at Bangalore. He did his M.Sc. in Geology and Ph.D. from Mysore University. He joined the GSI at Raipur in 1979 as a Geologist and was soon after posted at Nagpur. At Nagpur he was posted in the Geomagnetism Cell and later on in Petrology, Photogeology and Geodata Division still 2001. Dr. Ramchandra has made a sterling contribution to the geology of Central India and had also mentored many junior and senior colleagues with his scholarship and academic excellence. The author having been closely associated with him while at Petrology Division, Central Region, GSI, has observed his very able guidance offered to geoscientists for the pursuance of field and laboratory studies in connection with the “Crust and Mantle Studies of the Son and Narmada basins” (Project: CRUMANSONATA). He also offered able guidance to several desirous geoscientists and researchers with his expertise in geological mapping, structural geology, petrology, petrogenesis, mineralization and geophysical modelling, having been anonymously associated with several field items in the GSI, Central Region. Sadly, Dr. Ramchandra was averse to, and never published many research papers to document his vast wealth of knowledge, that could be referred to by future workers, for posterity. He was conferred with the then National Mineral Award for 1999-2000, for his significant contribution for undertaking integrated geoscientific research in Precambrian terrains of Central India. In 2001, he was transferred to the GSI, Bangalore, and was in the Training Institute as a faculty member and later Director during the last phase of his career, before seeking voluntary retirement in 2012. He was very actively associated with the Geological Society of India, Bangalore.