Upendranath Brahmachari

Upendranath Brahmachari was a leading Indian scientist and physician of his time. He was born on 19 December 1873 in Sardanga village near Purbasthali, West Bengal, India. His father Nilmony Brahmachari was a physician in East Indian Railways and his mother Saurabh Sundari Devi was a homemaker. He completed his early education from Eastern Railways Boys' High School, Jamalpur. He then attended Hooghly Mohsin College and obtained a Bachelor’s degree, with honors in Mathematics and Chemistry, in 1893. He decided to study medicine and passed his Master’s degree from the Presidency College, Kolkata, in 1894. He enrolled at the University of Calcutta and earned his MD degree in 1902 and PhD degree in 1904 for his research on haemolysis. In 1898, he married Nani Bala Devi and they had three children: Phanindra Nath, Nirmal Kumar and Roma Chaudhuri (née Brahmachari). He started his medical career in 1899 by joining the Provincial Medical Service where he was appointed a teacher of Pathology and Materia Medica. In 1901, he became a physician in the Dacca Medical School. In 1905, he became a teacher in Medicine and Physician at the Campbell Medical School, Kolkata. He served there for many years, carrying out most of his research work on kala-azar, a deadly parasitic disease that affected millions of people in India. He made his monumental discovery of urea stibamine, an organic antimonial compound, in 1922 and proved that it was an effective treatment for kala-azar. He also discovered a new form of leishmaniasis, called dermal leishmanoid, which affected partially cured or untreated cases of kala-azar. He was awarded many honors and recognitions for his scientific contributions. He received the Griffith Memorial Prize from the University of Calcutta, the Sir William Jones Medal from the Asiatic Society of Bengal, the Minto Medal from the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the Kaisar-i-Hind Gold Medal and the title of Rai Bahadur from the Governor General Lord Lytton, and a knighthood from the British Government. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize twice, in 1929 and 1942, but did not win it. He was also elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, London and served as the president of various scientific and cultural organizations such as the Indian Science Congress, the Indian Chemical Society, the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, and the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad. He founded the Brahmachari Research Institute at his own residence in Kolkata in 1924, which became successful in both research and manufacture of medicine. He retired as a physician from the government service in 1927 and became a professor of tropical diseases at the Carmichael Medical College, Kolkata. He also served as a consultant physician to various hospitals and institutions such as the Calcutta Medical College, the National Medical Institute, the Indian Council of Medical Research, the University College of Science, Calcutta, the Indian Red Cross Society, the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and the Zoological Garden, Kolkata. He died on 6 February 1946 at the age of 72 due to coronary thrombosis. He was cremated at the Keoratala crematorium in Kolkata and his ashes were immersed in the Ganges. He is remembered as one of the greatest Indian scientists and physicians of all time and a pioneer in the field of tropical medicine. His life and work inspired many generations of researchers and doctors in India and abroad.