National Academies Press: OpenBook

Memorial Tributes: Volume 15 (2011)

Chapter: Praveen Chaudhari 1937-2010

« Previous: Kermit Earl Brown 1923-2009
Suggested Citation:"Praveen Chaudhari 1937-2010." National Academy of Engineering. 2011. Memorial Tributes: Volume 15. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13160.
×

img-44

Suggested Citation:"Praveen Chaudhari 1937-2010." National Academy of Engineering. 2011. Memorial Tributes: Volume 15. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13160.
×

PRAVEEN CHAUDHARI

1937–2010

Elected in 1988

“For contributions to the field of materials science and engineering and to the advancement of electronic materials.”

BY MERTON C. FLEMINGS

PRAVEEN CHAUDHARI, an innovator in the field of thin films and high-temperature superconductors, died on January 13, 2010, at his home in Briarcliff Manor, New York. Dr. Chaudhari joined IBM in 1966 and became vice-president of science in 1982. After retiring from IBM in 2003, he became director of Brookhaven National Laboratory, a position he held until 2006.

Praveen was born on November 30, 1937, in Ludhiana, India, where he lived through the scarring times of the Indian partition and witnessed the bloodshed of the 1947 riots. Sent to boarding school, reputably because of his tendency to go fishing during school hours, he began his path to a professional career. In 1961 he received his bachelor’s degree in metallurgy from the Indian Institute of Technology, in Kharagpur, and then in 1966 his doctoral degree in metallurgy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His thesis topic, under advisor Michael Bever, was on irradiation defects in bismuth telluride.

Suggested Citation:"Praveen Chaudhari 1937-2010." National Academy of Engineering. 2011. Memorial Tributes: Volume 15. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13160.
×

Praveen then embarked on a 37-year career at IBM Research in Yorktown Heights, New York. He quickly became a source of inspiration to researchers there in many areas of thin-film physics. He was a crucial contributor to IBM’s product development activities. During the 1970s, while working with others, he developed the amorphous gadolinium cobalt films that were integrated into IBM’s magnetic bubble devices and later served as the basis for read-write media for the magneto-optic disk industry. In recognition of that development, he and his coinvestigators were awarded the National Medal of Technology in 1995.

Appointed vice president of science in 1982, Praveen shaped the evolution of IBM’s science research programs in the 1980s while continuing his own productive research career. During the early years following the high-temperature superconductivity discovery, he carried out his executive duties during the day while working in his laboratory in the evenings. His team made a number of important contributions to the field, including the growing of yttrium barium copper oxide crystals with current densities two orders of magnitude greater than those previously obtained.

In 2003, Praveen retired from IBM and became director of Brookhaven National Laboratory. He put the laboratory on a firm foundation of stability and growth. His vision led to new initiatives for the laboratory, including establishment of its Center for Functional Nanomaterials. Praveen stepped down as laboratory director in 2003, joined Columbia University as adjunct professor, and returned to his old laboratory at IBM in Yorktown, where he could often be found running experiments. He remained active in his research until a few months before his death.

Praveen was deeply involved in science and technology policy. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1988. He was co-chairman of the National Research Council Committee on Materials Science and Engineering (1985–1989). This study was the basis of a presidential initiative in advanced materials and processing programs, announced by the White House in January 1992. He served on the U.S. National Critical

Suggested Citation:"Praveen Chaudhari 1937-2010." National Academy of Engineering. 2011. Memorial Tributes: Volume 15. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13160.
×

Technologies Panel (1992–1993) and advised the government of India on science and technology policy.

For his achievements, Praveen was honored with a number of awards. In addition to the National Medal of Technology, these included the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award (1992) for “the discovery of amorphous magnetic films in magneto-optic data storage systems,” now the foundation of the worldwide magnetic-optic disk industry; the American Physical Society’s George E. Pake Award (1987) for personal contributions to science and science management; and the Excellence Award of the U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce. Praveen was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Praveen was also a gifted leader who moved easily in the worlds of science, engineering, and policy. He was quiet but determined, demanding but understanding. His scientific and technological enthusiasm was infectious. He remained a gentleman to the end.

He is survived by his wife, Karin; his son, Ashok; his daughter, Pia; his sister, Neera Sahgal; and his two brothers, Shiv Chaudhari and Deepak Chaudhari.

Suggested Citation:"Praveen Chaudhari 1937-2010." National Academy of Engineering. 2011. Memorial Tributes: Volume 15. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13160.
×
Page 44
Suggested Citation:"Praveen Chaudhari 1937-2010." National Academy of Engineering. 2011. Memorial Tributes: Volume 15. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13160.
×
Page 45
Suggested Citation:"Praveen Chaudhari 1937-2010." National Academy of Engineering. 2011. Memorial Tributes: Volume 15. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13160.
×
Page 46
Suggested Citation:"Praveen Chaudhari 1937-2010." National Academy of Engineering. 2011. Memorial Tributes: Volume 15. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13160.
×
Page 47
Next: Aaron Cohen 1931-2010 »
Memorial Tributes: Volume 15 Get This Book
×
Buy Hardback | $107.00 Buy Ebook | $84.99
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

This is the fifteenth volume in the series of Memorial Tributes compiled by the National Academy of Engineering as a personal remembrance of the lives and outstanding achievements of its members and foreign associates. These volumes are intended to stand as an enduring record of the many contributions of engineers and engineering to the benefit of humankind. In most cases, the authors of the tributes are contemporaries or colleagues who had personal knowledge of the interests and the engineering accomplishments of the deceased.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    Switch between the Original Pages, where you can read the report as it appeared in print, and Text Pages for the web version, where you can highlight and search the text.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  9. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!