CHANDIGARH: Dr Rajesh Kochhar has passed away after a brief illness on Wednesday. Professor Kochhar had been a Jawaharlal fellow, a Fulbright visiting lecturer, a visiting scholar at University of Cambridge department of history and philosophy of science; and honorary professor of history of science and technology at National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore.
He was the recipient of National Academy of Sciences India’s Professor R C Gupta Endowment History of Science Lecture Award and Indian National Science Academy’s 2014 Indira Gandhi Prize for Popularization of Science.
He obtained his MSc honours in Physics in 1967 and PhD in 1973, both from Panjab University, Chandigarh, where he began his career as a lecturer. He was a professor at Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, and moved to New Delhi in 1999 to take charge as director of National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, New Delhi (CSIR). He had also been a professor of pharmaceutical heritage in National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Mohali. Prof Kochhar was an honorary professor, of PU mathematics department.
