Pareshnath Mukherjee obtained his MSc (Physics) (1954) from Calcutta University and joined the Institute of Nuclear Physics (1955) [now Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), Kolkata] as a Research Student under the supervision of AK Saha. After submitting his doctoral thesis he worked as Research Associate with BL Cohen at the University of Pittsburgh, USA (1961-63). He retired as Senior Professor (1992) from SINP, but continued to work at the Nuclear Science Centre (NSC), New Delhi till 1997.

Academic and Research Achievements: Mukherjee’s interest was in experimental and theoretical nuclear physics. During 1955-57 he completed construction of an improved version of a beta-ray sepctrometer. He was one of the first in India to publish in the area of beta-and gamma-ray spectroscopy. He made comprehensive study of a large number of heavy nuclei using (d, p), (d, t) and (d,d) reactions. The foremost of these is the nuclear structure studies in Lead region. He also made notable contributions in theoretical nuclear physics, among which were the work on the stability of octupole shape in radium nuclei, effect of nucleon correlation on the damping of nuclear density oscillation and the investigation of unbound shell model states in the continuum. He has published a number of significant work using data from the variable Energy Cyclotron Facility, Kolkata, and the Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility at NSC, New Delhi.

Awards and Honours: Professor Mukherjee received the prestigious Mouat Gold Medal from Calcutta University.