PERSONAL NEWS

Viking long boat and sailed from the cultures of upper Mekong as featured in decade of his life, as his travels were
Dvina River in northern Russia down the a documentary film (Source of the reduced, Peissel focused more on his
Dnieper River that flows into the Black Mekong, A&E, 1998) sponsored by the artworks. He published nearly 100 of his
Sea (La Route De L’ambre – De La Smithsonian Institute. watercolour paintings of Tibetan monas-
Baltique À La Mer Noire Dans Le Sillage From 1995 to 1999, Peissel spent sev- teries and cliff-top buildings in Tibetan
Des Vikings, 1992). This 2400 km, 53- eral seasons in Tibet, studying the Pilgrimage (2005). Before his death,
day long seafaring was intended to recre- Tibetan breeds of horses, mapping caves Peissel had just completed his first chil-
ate that of the Rus people (a group of and salt routes, and filming wildlife on dren’s illustrated book about Tibet and
Nordic Varangians), who founded the the Changthang Plateau in western Tibet; was scheduled to promote it at the Book
Russian kingdom in the 9th century. and finally in 2000, he visited the Amdo Fair in Frankfurt, but a heart attack at
In 1994, Peissel and his crew explored region in northeast Tibet to document the night put an end to the wonderful and
the source of the Mekong River, Asia’s 50 m tall drystone towers which have fruitful career of this great explorer. His
third longest rivers originating in eastern survived earthquakes for centuries, and contributions and legacy will be cher-
Tibet. Peissel followed the more difficult whose origin and builders remain a com- ished.
and historical Dza Nak (Black Mekong) plete mystery. Peissel, who characterized himself as
branch of the river reaching the home- Throughout his life, Peissel showed ‘an adventurer with lots of curiosity’,
land of nomadic tribes whom the Chinese great fond and friendship toward the was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical
sometimes sarcastically call ‘the last Himalayan-Tibetan people, culture and Society of London and a member of the
barbarians’ (The Last Barbarians: The history. In one of his last books, Tibet: Explorers’ Club of New York. He mar-
Discovery of the Source of the Mekong, The Secret Continent (2003), Peissel ried three times and had five children.
1997). A decade later, however, a Japa- summed up his life-long explorations of
RASOUL SORKHABI
nese–Chinese team demonstrated that the the world’s highest plateau and mountains.
White Mekong (Dza Kar) was about As a young boy, Peissel liked to draw University of Utah,
4 km longer and was thus the primary prehistoric animals. In his expeditions he Energy and Geoscience Institute,
source. Nevertheless, it was Peissel’s drew sketches and created watercolour Salt Lake City,
work that contributed to our knowledge paintings, some of which were exhibited UT 84108, USA
of the little-known landscape and tribal in Paris and New York. During the last e-mail: rsorkhabi@egi.utah.edu

L. S. Srinath (1927–2012)
Laxmipuram Srinivasachar Srinath, born Power Society of India. He has made tions research and experimental stress
on 15 March 1927, passed away in Ban- major fundamental research contri- analysis. His books PERT and CPM –
galore on 13 September 2012. He was a butions in the areas of experimental Principles and Applications and Advan-
celebrated teacher and an educationist mechanics photoelasticity, photother- ced Mechanics of Solids have become
par excellence. moelasticity, and stress wave propaga- classics each running into 4 editions and
Srinath started his career as a Fellow tion in solids and has over 160 more than 30 reprints!
at the Confederation of British Industries publications to his credit. Methods developed by Srinath in the
in UK (1953–55), then moved to the Illi- areas of photoelasticity, holographic
nois Institute of Technology as Assistant stress analysis and scattered light photo-
Professor of Engineering Mechanics elasticity are standard reference books
(1958–59). He returned to India to join among practising engineers and have to-
the Aeronautical Development Estab- day formed the basis for many non-
lishment in Bangalore as Senior Scien- destructive analyses of stresses in solids.
tific Officer (1959–60) before joining the Several equations that are used are
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) named after him. He was the first to
Kanpur, where he worked as a Professor demonstrate the potentialities of scat-
between 1963 and 1971. In 1971, he tered light in the non-destructive analysis
joined the Indian Institute of Science of stresses in solids. He was invited to
(IISc), Bangalore as Senior Professor of deliver special lectures on his methods in
Mechanical Science (1971–84) and con- photoelasticity, to practising engineers
tinued after superannuation as Emeritus and professionals in India and abroad.
Professor until 1995. He was Director of Srinath took keen interest in continu-
IIT Madras from 1984 to 1989. ing education activities that span the
Srinath was elected Fellow of the domain of college teachers as well as
Indian National Academy of Engineer- serving professionals. Full credit should
ing, Indian Academy of Sciences, He took keen interest in writing books be given to him for his efforts to make
Society of Experimental Mechanics, in diverse areas and wrote 10 books in all the QIP schemes an effective instrument
Aeronautical Society of India and Fluid ranging from linear programming, opera- of change in transforming significantly

CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 103, NO. 12, 25 DECEMBER 2012 1475

PERSONAL NEWS
the quality and standard of technical number of good quality text/reference As a Jawaharlal Nehru Fellow, Srinath
education in our country. He was the first books written by Indian authors. The organized a series of seminars, work-
to implement the scheme at IIT-Kanpur above activities of the Curriculum shops and national conferences in col-
with the support of the then Ministry of Development Centre at IIT Kanpur laboration with COSTED to promote and
Education. became a model for other institutions, inculcate design culture among the stu-
The sequential summer school pro- and today majority of activities of QIP dent and teaching community. Today, as
grammes for serving teachers that Sri- Centres in IITs and NITs are in the above a result of these efforts, a course on en-
nath devised in 1968 increased the three areas. gineering design has become a common
number of teachers having postgraduate At IISc in addition to starting the Cen- subject of study for all disciplines of en-
qualifications in our technical institu- tre for Continuing Education, Srinath ini- gineering. To promote the teaching of
tions from a mere 15% (1968) to a res- tiated the highly successful and reputed design-oriented courses, Srinath authored
pectable figure of 40–50% in a few PROFISCIENCE programme in colla- several relevant books like PERT and
years. As a national coordinator for 10 boration with 12 professional societies CPM, Reliability Engineering, Mechani-
long years, he put QIP activities on a for working professionals in industries cal Reliability, Design Essentials of
firm footing which convinced other IITs and R&D establishments. The evening Engineering Systems, etc. These text-
and NITs to become partners in this courses which are offered under this pro- books have greatly assisted the teachers
effort. Today, QIP schemes are the major gramme are of the same standard and to gain confidence in teaching design-
activities of AICTE and the Indian Soci- level as those given to regular students at oriented courses. Srinath was the editor
ety for Technical Education (ISTE) to IISc at the postgraduate level. of Engineering Design journal of the
upgrade the quality and standards of Since there was no forum available for Institution of Engineers from 1973 to
teachers in degree colleges and polytech- teachers of technical institutions to mu- 1977.
nics. tually exchange and express their views Srinath would be fondly remembered
Srinath was the first to set up a Centre on teaching methods, curricular contents, by his students for his clarity in presenta-
for Continuing Education in India at IIT- laboratory developments, etc. Srinath tion, and impeccable board work. He is
Kanpur in 1969. One of the major acti- founded the Indian Journal of Technical considered a model teacher and one of
vities he initiated was curriculum deve- Education in 1971 and was its editor for the best in the profession. His teaching
lopment. A majority of curricula in 13 long years. This was a much needed methods have also been unique. Many of
technical institutions were of cut-and- avenue and a channel of communication his students today occupy important aca-
paste type, comprising mostly outdated among the teaching community. Even demic and administrative positions.
material. His three-pronged attack, namely today, this is the only journal in India Srinath is survived by his wife, a son
(a) modernize the curricula reflecting dealing with technical education and is and a daughter.
newer developments; (b) train teachers to run by Indian Society for Technical Edu-
upgrade their subject competence cation as an international journal under K. RAMESH
through short-term summer programmes the Indo-Canadian programme.
and (c) encourage Indian authors to write Though design is the essence of engi- Department of Applied Mechanics,
suitable textbooks in the newer areas, neering, the curricula of all our technical Indian Institute of Technology Madras,
helped in raising the quality and standards institutions were mostly analysis- Chennai 600 036, India
of our teachers, and we also have a large oriented without much design content. e-mail: kramesh@iitm.ac.in

Edited by P. Balaram, and printed & published by G. Madhavan for Current Science Association, Bangalore 560 080.
Typeset by WINTECS Typesetters (Ph: 2332 7311), Bangalore and Printed at Printek Printers, Bangalore (Ph: 2328 7763)

1476 CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 103, NO. 12, 25 DECEMBER 2012