C. V. Subramanian | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1924-08-11)11 August 1924 Ernakulam, Kerala India |
| Died | 5 February 2016(2016-02-05) (aged 91) Bangkok, Thailand |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | Studies onFungi imperfecti |
| Awards | 1944 UoM Pulney Andi Gold Medal 1965 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize 1973 Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award 1972 IBS Birbal Sahni Medal 2000 Janaki Ammal National Award 2009 IBS Lifetime Achievement Award |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mycology Plant pathology |
| Institutions | |
| Doctoral advisor | T. S. Sadasivan |
Chirayathumadom Venkatachalier Subramanian (11 August 1924 – 5 February 2016), popularly known asCVS, was an Indianmycologist,taxonomist andplant pathologist, known for his work on the classification ofFungi imperfecti, a group of fungi classified separately due to lack of specifictaxonomic characteristics.[1] He authored one monograph,Hyphomycetes: An Account of Indian Species, Except Cercosporae[2] and three books,Hyphomycetes, taxonomy and biology,[3]Moulds, Mushrooms and Men[4] andSoil microfungi of Israel,[5] besides several articles published in peer-reviewed journals. He was a recipient of many honours including theRafi Ahmed Kidwai Award of theIndian Council of Agricultural Research, theJanaki Ammal National Award of the Government of India[6] and seven species of fungi have been named after him.[7] TheCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him theShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1965, for his contributions to biological sciences.[8]
C. V. Subramanian was born on 11 August 1924 atKochi inErnakulam district, the commercial capital[9] of the south Indian state ofKerala, to T. D. Parvathi Ammal and C. M. Venkatachalier, a lawyer.[10] He did his schooling atSree Rama Varma High School, a government-run school in the city and did his early college studies atMaharaja's College after which he joined thePresidency College, Chennai from where he graduated (BSc Hons) with first rank in 1941. It was during this period he had the opportunity to meetM. O. P. Iyengar, the renownedalgologist, who was known to have fostered Subramanian's interest inphycology. Before completing his master's degree (MA) inmycology in 1944, he prepared his first dissertation onAcanthus ilicifolius, ahalophyte found in the saline waters of western coastal India. Subsequently, he joinedToppur Seethapathy Sadasivan[note 1] as the first research student of theplant pathologist who also headed theCentre for Advanced Studies in Botany of theUniversity of Madras during that time. He received his doctoral degree (PhD) in 1948 for his thesis,Soil conditions and wilt diseases in plants with special reference toFusarium vasinfectum Atk. on cotton after which he continued his research on mycology and did post-doctoral research, on an ICS fellowship of theIndian National Science Academy (then known as the National Institute of Sciences of India) at the Botany School ofCambridge University and, later atCommonwealth Mycological Institute, UK where he was associated with known mycologists, Stephen Denis Garrett and E. W. Mason.[10]
Subramanian started his academic career in 1951 when he joined theUniversity of Madras as a senior lecturer where he rose to the position of a reader in 1953.[11] During this period, he continued his researches and his published work,Floristic and taxonomic studies onFungi Imperfecti, earned him the degree of DSc in 1957 from the University of Madras. A year later, theIndian Agricultural Research Institute created a newChair in Plant Pathology and invited Subramanian to hold the position which he did till his move to theUniversity of Rajasthan in 1960. There, he established the Department of Botany and headed the department as its founder professor till his return to Madras University in 1964 as a professor of Botany. In 1973, he succeeded his mentor,T. S. Sadasivan as the head of theCentre for Advanced Study in Botany, a position he held till his superannuation in 1985.[10] He continued his academic career past his official retirement and worked as a visiting professor at such institutions as theNational University of Singapore, theUniversity of Western Australia and theNational Taiwan University.[6]
Subramanian was married to Subbalakshmi and the couple lived inNungambakkam,Chennai.[10] It was during one of his trips to Thailand, he died inBangkok on 5 February 2016, at the age of 91, survived by his wife and two sons, C. S. Venkatachalam and C. S. Seshadri, both engineers by profession.[11]
Subramanian was involved with a number of science academies and societies in India, starting with his membership of theIndian Academy of Sciences at the age of 32, reportedly chosen personally byC. V. Raman, the renowned physicist,[6] where he would later serve as the vice-president from 1977 to 1985.[12] He served as a member of theIndian National Science Academy,International Union of Biological Sciences,Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium andBritish Mycological Society. He was the president of theInternational Mycological Association in 1977 and presided over its annual congress held in Tokyo in 1983.[6] In 1973, he led a group of mycologists who founded theMycological Society of India for promoting mycological researches.[13] The society has since grown to be a national organisation with 400 members and interest in studies related to taxonomy, ecology, pathology, genetics, molecular biology and physiology. The society also publishes a journal,Kavaka and he was its founder editor, holding the position till 1998. He was also a member of theUniversity Grants Commission from 1977 to 1982.[6] It was reported that Subramanian personally appealed toIndira Gandhi, the then Indian prime minister, to abandon the proposed hydro-electric project in theSilent Valley, abio-reserve area in his home state ofKerala, eventually leading to its declaration as a national park in 1985.[10]
While serving as a senior lecturer at Madras University, Subramanian published a two-volume work in 1956 under the title,List of Indian Fungi, which listed the known species of fungi in India.[14] Major focus of his research was onFungi imperfecti.[15] He was known to have conducted extensive research onHyphomycetes and his work has been detailed in a monograph,Hyphomycetes: An Account of Indian Species, Except Cercosporae, published in 1971[2] and another book,Hyphomycetes, taxonomy and biology, published in 1983,[3] where he proposed a classification based onconidiumontogenesis. He also proposed a new nomenclature protocol based onSanskrit terminology;[11]MycoBank, an online repository managed by theInternational Mycological Association has listed 384 genera of fungi named by him and Angulimaya,[16] Dwayabeeja,[17]Kutilakesa, Nalalanthamala, and Tharoopama[18] are some of them.[19] He worked on the re-assessment of Dematiaceous hyphomycetes and his work assisted in reclassifying the genus by attempting to disprove that Sporidesmium had a different ancestral species (monophyletic).[10]Aspergillus, a genus of moulds, was another subject of his developmental taxonomical studies and his research on itsteleomorphs helped in the better understanding of the fungi. His researches also explained thesystematics, distribution and ecological behaviour ofFusarium andDrechslera, two plant pathogens.[15] He documented his researches in several articles and books besides the ones noted above;Moulds, Mushrooms and Men[4] andSoil microfungi of Israel[5] are two such works.
TheUniversity of Madras awarded Subramanian the Pulney Andi Gold Medal in 1944 for academic excellence on his completion of the master's degree.[10] TheIndian Academy of Sciences elected him as their fellow in 1955[12] andIndian National Science Academy followed suit with their fellowship in 1960.[20] He received theShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards, from theCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research in 1965.[1] The Birbal Sahni Medal of theIndian Botanical Society reached him in 1972; the society would again honour him in 2009 with their Lifetime Achievement Award.[11] TheIndian Council of Agricultural Research awarded him theRafi Ahmed Kidwai Award in 1973 and he held theJawaharlal Nehru Fellowship from 1976 to 1978.[21] TheMycological Society of America selected him as their honorary member in 1983[22] and the Government of India awarded him theE. K. Janaki Ammal National Award for Taxonomy in 2000.[10] The scientific community honoured Subramanian for his work;Subramaniula, Subramanianospora, Subramaniomyces, Subramania, Ceeveesubramaniomyces, Civisubramaniana andAscosubramania are seven species of fungi named after him.[7]
The standardauthor abbreviationSubram. is used to indicate this person as the author whenciting abotanical name.[23]
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