November 16, 2005
Dr. Amit Chatterjee conferred fellowship of Imperial College, London
Dr. Amit Chatterjee has been conferred the fellowship of the Imperial College, London recently. The fellowship of the Imperial College is the highest honour given by the college to a person of outstanding distinction and with whom the college has close association.
Dr. Chatterjee was the founder managing director of Tata Sponge Iron Ltd. and continues to be on its Board of Directors. He was associated with Tata Steel for more than 32 years before his superannuation from the post of technology officer.
Dr Chatterjee is a metallurgist from the Banaras Hindu University and has also completed his PhD degree from the Imperial College, London in 1970. He joined Tata Steel in 1972 after working for a couple of years in the LD shop of Thyssen in Germany. He spent a large portion of his career in Tata Steel’s R&D division. Dr Chatterjee owes the credit of developing the first indigenous coal-based direct reduction technology. The Tata Sponge plant was based on the pioneering work undertaken by Dr Chatterjee during his tenure in Tata Steel.
In recognition of his outstanding work on coal-based direct reduction and oxygen steel making (with which he was associated both during his PhD work and in Thyssen) he was awarded Doctor of Science (Eng) degree by the London University in 1988. He is one of the few recipients of this unique honour in India.
A student of Loyola School, Jamshedpur, Banaras Hindu University and Imperial College, this fellowship completes a unique trio. Dr Chatterjee was honoured as one of the outstanding students of Loyola school during its centenary in 1997. He was also chosen for the Distinguished Alumnus of the Department of Metallurgy, Banaras Hindu University in 1996. The late Mr Sumant Moolgaokar and Tata International’s present chairman, Mr Shymal Gupta, (both alumni of Imperial College) are amongst of the few from India chosen earlier for this fellowship.