Uppugunduri Aswathanarayana

Uppugunduri Aswathanarayana was born on July 1, 1928 in Vallur, a village in Andhra Pradesh, India. He had a difficult childhood due to poverty and had to walk barefoot in the hot sun to attend school. He excelled in mathematics and set a record for aggregate marks in the state secondary school examination. He pursued his higher education at Andhra University, where he was mentored by Prof. C. Mahadevan, who inspired him to do doctoral research in nuclear geology. He built his own equipment with the help of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, and produced the first doctoral thesis on nuclear geology in India. His thesis was examined by eminent scientists such as Arthur Holmes, J. Tuzo Wilson, and Louis Ahrens. Aswathanarayana continued his post-doctoral work on lead isotopes with Clair Patterson at Caltech in 1957, and Rb-Sr and K-Ar dating with S. Moorbath at Oxford University in 1963. He studied and taught geology at various universities and institutions in India, Tanzania, Mozambique, USA, UK, and Canada. He served as the Dean and Director of Centre for Advanced Study in Geology at University of Sagar, India; Head of Department of Geology at University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Director of State Mining Corporation, Tanzania; and Adviser on Environment and Technology, Mozambique. He also worked as a consultant to UNDP, World Bank, Louis Berger Inc., and SIDA. Aswathanarayana was a pioneer in applying geoscience to human welfare and sustainable development. He authored several books and research papers on topics such as water resources management, environmental geochemistry, economic geology, green energy, food security, and mineral resources management. He received many awards and honors for his contributions to geoscience education and research, such as the Excellence in Geophysical Education Award (2005) and the International Award (2007) from the American Geophysical Union; the Certificate of Recognition (2007) from the International Association of Geochemistry; and the Eminent Citizen Award in the area of Water Sciences (2007) from the Sivananda Trust, India. Aswathanarayana was the Honorary Director of the Mahadevan International Centre for Water Resources Management, Hyderabad, India, which is a part of the UNESCO-TWAS Network of Scientific Organizations. He was also a Fellow of several professional societies such as the Geological Society of London, the Geological Society of America, the Mineralogical Society of America, and the Indian Academy of Sciences. Aswathanarayana passed away on March 7, 2016 in Hyderabad, India at the age of 87. He is survived by his wife Vijayakalakshmi and his extended family. He is remembered as a doyen of geology in independent India and a leading scientist from Andhra Pradesh.