Kadarundalige Sitarama Gururaja Doss completed his DSc (1939) from the University of Madras with a specialization on electrochemistry. He was made the Director, Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Karaikudi (1957-67). He was earlier, Director, National Sugar Institute, Kanpur (1942-57), Emeritus Professor, IIT-M, Chennai (1967-70) after working as Assistant Professor, University of Mysore in the initial years.

Academic and Research Achievements: Doss was well known mostly for Faradaic rectification, one of the most outstanding researches in electrochemistry, and the theory of contact angles. He developed the relevant theory for the very simple redox processes and made experimental measurements. This phenomenon led to the measurement of kinetics of very fast electrode reactions and development of a polarographic technique for evaluation of metal ion concentrations in trace quantities. The entire field of non-linear relaxation techniques seems to follow this discovery. He invented in 1956 ‘resistance heating of massecuites’, which saved crores of rupees worth of sugar in many countries particularly in Australia. He studied activated carbon and production of action carbon from molasses. Perhaps this might have led him to the production of activated charcoal for use in air-depolarized batteries, which the CECRI developed in the sixties. He also became interested in the polarized electrode solution interface and electrode kinetics. Professor Doss was best known for the development of alternating polarography to study interfacial adsorption by the phenomenon known as tensammetry. He invented ‘transient heating’ in 1979, which also had the potential of saving crores of rupees annually.

Other Contributions: He served as member of editorial board of Corrosion Science, Electrochemical Acta and Journal of Chemistry.

Awards and Honours: Kadarundalige Sitarama Gururaja was a winner of the Noel Deerr Medal of Sugar Technologists Association of India (1982), the VASVIK Award (1981) as also the Invention Promotion Board Award. He was Fellow, Royal Institute of Chemistry and Institute of Physics.