Emeritus Professor Dr. Arun Kumar Basak

Early Life and Academic Journey

Emeritus Professor Dr. Arun Kumar Basak was born on October 17, 1941, in Radhanagar, Pabna town, in the then Bengal Presidency of British India (present-day Bangladesh). He was born to the late Haripada Basak, a private sector employee, and the late Usha Rani Basak, a homemaker, and was the eldest among four siblings. He completed his Matriculation from R.M. Academy, Pabna in the 1st Division in 1957, and secured the 2nd position in the merit list under Rajshahi University in his Intermediate Science (I.Sc.) from Govt. Edward College in 1959. He went on to earn his B.Sc. (Hons.) in Physics from Rajshahi College in 1961, securing 1st Class 1st Position, and repeated the top result in his M.Sc. in Physics from the University of Rajshahi in 1963, which earned him the prestigious Rajshahi University Gold Medal. Although he secured a merit scholarship to Imperial College London in 1965, his travel was cancelled due to the 1965 Indo-Pak war after his passport was impounded. Later in 1972, he availed a Commonwealth Scholarship to attend the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, where he completed his Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics in 1975. He married Debika Basak in December 1969.

(Sources: Bangladesh Academy of Sciences (BAS), Wikipedia, ABIOGRAPHY, The Daily Star)

Career, Institutional Leadership, and Service to the Nation

Dr. Basak began his professional academic journey as a Lecturer in the Department of Physics at the University of Rajshahi in December 1963, eventually rising to Associate Professor in 1978 and later to full Professor. Driven by a deep sense of patriotism, he declined permanent appointment offers in the United Kingdom and senior posts at Dhaka University, choosing instead to build domestic research capabilities in Rajshahi. During the mid-1980s, he established the first Computer Centre at Rajshahi University, spearheading the foundation of computer literacy in the north-western region of Bangladesh. Between 1990 and 1994, he served on deputation at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) as the Founding Head of the Physics Department, the First Dean of Physical Sciences, and the First Director of its Computer Centre. Globally, he worked as a Post-doctoral Fellow at The Ohio State University (1980–1982), a Senior Associate at the Abdus Salam ICTP in Trieste, Italy (1987–2005), and a Visiting Professor at Kent State University and Southern Illinois University Carbondale. In 2008/2009, the University of Rajshahi honored his life's work by appointing him as Professor Emeritus.

(Sources: Bangladesh Academy of Sciences (BAS), ABIOGRAPHY, Wikipedia, The Daily Star)

Research Contributions, Scientific Publications, and Honors

Dr. Basak’s scientific work centers on theoretical nuclear physics, atomic scattering, and non-monotonic nucleus-nucleus interaction potentials. While working at the University of Birmingham, he conducted pioneering experimental and theoretical analyses using tensor polarized deuterons and what was then the world's only polarized ³He beam. He has authored more than 100 research papers in top-tier peer-reviewed international journals—including Physical Review Letters, Physics Letters, and Europhysics Letters—alongside 14 papers in national journals and a co-authored university textbook on practical physics. In recognition of his landmark contributions to the physical sciences, he was awarded the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences (BAS) Gold Medal in 2003. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP), London, a Fellow of the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences, and a Life Member of the American Physical Society. His public recognitions also include The Daily Star Lifetime Achievement Award (2016), the Dhaka University Razzak-Shamsun Lifetime Achievement Award (2016), and the Noble Teacher Award (2020).

(Sources: Bangladesh Academy of Sciences (BAS), Wikipedia, The Daily Star, ABIOGRAPHY)