DR. S. K. SHOME: 1933 – 1976

Dr. (Mrs.) Usha Shome, Scientist at the National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow donated a sum of Rs. 5,000/- to the Mycological Society of India to be used in a fitting manner to commemorate her husband the Late Dr. S. K. Shome’s contribution in the field of Mycology. With much pleasure the Society accepted the donation and decided to treat it as an endowment for arranging a lecture – The Shome Memorial Lecture – to be delivered every year by a distinguished mycologist under the auspices of the society. We have pleasure in publishing in this issue a photograph of the Late Dr. S. K. Shome and a brief biographical sketch.

Dr. Sarit Kumar Shome was born on 15^th February, 1933 at Lucknow, U.P. He obtained his Master’s degree in Botany in 1955, Ph. D. in Medical Mycology in 1959 from Lucknow University under Prof. S. N. Das Gupta and was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the same university in 1960. In 1961, he went to Instituto De Micologis, Universidade do Recife as research visitor and was appointed as a “Mycological Specialist” from September 1961 in the same institute. During his stay in Brazil Dr. Shome participated in the XVIII Brasilian Dermatological Congress, Fortaleza, Ceara, 1961, and the “XIII Botanical Congress of Brazil, 1962” on behalf of the Instituto de Micologia, Universidade do Recife. He was invited by the Ministry of Education to deliver a course of lectures on Mycology and its Applied Branches at the Escola de Agronomia Universidade Rural, Recife. On return to India in 1962, he joined University of Kalyani, West Bengal and shifted to National Institute of Communicable Diseases as an Assistant Director in Microbiology Division in the year 1967 where he established the Medical Mycology Laboratory. His practical contribution to national public health includes investigation of mycotic infection (superficial and deep) in the rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi and Haryana in India; Recife and Manaus in Brazil and South America among the population under tropical conditions. His outstanding work on mycoses in these areas bears testimony to his dynamic drive and dedication to work.

Dr. Shome attended a number of conferences and seminars and presented several papers in them. He was invited by the Director of T. B. Demonstration and Training Centre, Agra, in 1975, to help in developing their Mycology Unit. He was a special invitee in the Symposium “Human Mycoses and Micangole”, organised by Ethnor Limited in 1974.

In a short span of his life rime, Dr. Shome published over 60 papers in various journals of national and international repute. In addition to these, several of his works remained unpublished due to his sudden demise.

Dr. Shome survived by his wife, daughter Anuradha and son Anupam.

Dr. V. Agnihothrudu : 1930-1999

A native of the West Godavary district of Andhra Pradesh, Dr. Agnihothrudu grew up in Madras where his father was in service, and he had his entire education in Madras, right from schooling. He passed his B.Sc. (Hons.) in Botany from Presidency College in 1950 with a first class and first rank in Madras University. He then went on to take his Ph.D. in 1954 from Madras University Botany Department under the guidance of Prof. T.S. Sadasivan, working on the microflora of soil and the rhizosphere. This was followed by a brief post-doctoral stint in the same department, during which Dr. Agnihothrudu became interested in Myxomycetes and published a series of beautifully illustrated papers under the title. "Some slime-moulds from Southern India".

In 1955, Dr. Agnihothrudu moved over to Assam as Mycologist in the Tocklai Experimental station of the Indian Tea Association. The Mycologist in him blossomed in the tea gardens of Assam, and he published a series of papers on the various fungi that he found there, apart from Myxomycetes. These were in the nature of a hobby, while he concentrated primarily on the diseases of tea. Based on his findings on Tea diseases, he prepared a thesis for which he was awarded the D.Sc. degree of Madras University. This was unique distinction, so far achieved only by a few full-time academics working in the University.

In 1964, Dr. Agnihothrudu left Assam came down to Bangalore, as Technical Advisor to Rallis India Ltd., Pesticides Division. During his tenure with Rallis up to 1985 first as Technical Advisor and later as Director of Research, Dr. Agnihothrudu became an expert on diseases of plantation crops and their management, especially on the usage and residual effects of fungicides and pesticides.

From 1985 onwards, Dr. Agnihothrudu worked as Director of Tea Research Institute of the United Planters Association of Southern India, and also as consultant to several chemical companies, in India and abroad. He was also a member of various selection Boards and of Committees focusing on problems of plantation crops and pesticides. He attended and chaired sessions in various international conferences on these topics.

As a person Dr. Agnihothrudu was charming, and humane in his dealing with people. His wit and charm were infectious. With his demurely beautiful wife Indira, his lively son Subramanyeswar and his devoted cook Rao, he has a happy home which was always open to visiting friends and relatives.

Dr. Agnihothrudu's published papers on the subjects of his interest number over 350. His monograph on pesticide residues has been published by Rallis India.

M.J. Thirumalachar : 1914-1999

In the passing away of M.J. Thirumalachar on 21 April 1999 at Walnut Creek, CA, USA, the world of biological sciences has lost a veteran researcher of over 60 years whose original contribution embraced a wide spectrum of scientific disciplines like botany, mycology, microbiology, antibiotic fermentations and chemotherapy of human, animal and plant infections. Best known as an outstanding mycologist of international standing, his contributions to the study of Indian fungi have been phenomenal. Through his publications on several new genera and species of fungi belonging to all the major groups of the mycological kingdom, Thirumalachar has indeed placed his footprints firmly on the sands of time. His earlier contributions monographing the rusts published jointly with B.B. Mundkar, description of new genera of smuts like Mundukurella, Narasimhania and Franzpetrakia (along with M.S. Pavgi) and Georgefischeria (Along with M.J. Narasimhan, M.C. Srinivasan and H.C. Govindu), erecting Sclerophthora as a new genus of downy mildew for the destructive crazy top of corn and other graminaceous hosts (along with M.J. Narasimhan and Charles Garner Shaw), establishing the morphological basis for differentating Entomophthora from Conidiobolus on the basis of cultural studies (Along with M.C. Srinivasan and M.J. Narasimhan) and the studies on the life cycle of an edible rust causing malformation on Acacia eburnea and identifying it as Ravenelia esculenta (along with M.J. Narasimhan) rediscovered sixty years after Barcklay had described Aecidium esculentum from Maharashtra are just a few examples of his most notable contributions to mycology.

In the field of antibiotics, Thirumalachar is well recognized for his discovery of Hamycin, Dermostatin and Aureofungin which are potent antifungal antibiotics therapeutically useful in the control of human mycoses and combating fungal diseases of plants. An anti-protozoal, anti-helminthic antibiotic from a new species of Emericellopsis isolated by him was designated Antiamoebln and shown to successfully control intestinal parasites in milch cattle. He continued active research leading to the discovery of bioactive compounds after he went over to the United States and established the Jeersannidhi-Anderson Institute at Walnut Creek, California along with his son M.J. Narasimhan Jr. Among his major contributions are the development of new derivatives of established antibiotic with better performance and lesser toxicity designated JAIMYCIN Inc. He also focussed on chemical control of plant and animal diseases and patented Phyton 27 as a non-phytotoxic systemic fungicide which was successfully applied for the control of Dutch elm disease and other tree wilts. Thirumalachar also developed chemotherapeutants for the control of a wide range of fungal, bacterial and mycoplasma diseases of crop plants and fruit trees and several of these have been in various stages of development and evaluation leading to eventual commercialization. Thirumalachar was an inspiring teacher and his keen interest and ability to spot unusual specimens during field collections was unique. During the early years when Mundkar visited Bangalore after he had received several new and interesting specimens from Thirumalachar, he was pleasantly surprised that they were all collected in the neighbourhood of Malleswaram or Yeswanthpur in Bangalore through careful field observation and Mundkur exclaimed that it is the eye behind, which is more important for discovery than the location. Even in his screening for new antibiotics and metabolites, Thirumalachar isolated some of the most promising and interesting cultures from Pimpri soil where the Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd. is located. The new actinomycete genus Chainia about which he published in Nature (1955) and the antifungal Hamycin producer which he designated as new species Streptomyces pimprina are just two examples of his outstanding discoveries. He has perhaps contributed more than anyone else to enriching our knowledge of microbial biodiversity in the Indian subcontinent and also showed their biotechnology potential as sources of novel and useful secondary metabolites. Thirumalachar was elected to the Fellowship of the Indian National Science Academy in 1966 and was a Council Member from 1969-1971. He was a recipient of the Sundar Lal Hora medal in 1969. He received the S.S. Bhatnagar Memorial award in 1967 for his outstanding contributions in developing therapeutically useful antifungal antibiotics. He was president of the Indian Phytopathological Society and also the first president of the Mycological Society of India when it was established in 1973. He was a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Antibiotics published from Japan and established Hindustan Antibiotics Bulletin as a full-fledged scientific journal with contributions from eminent national and international scientists.

An era has ended but his contributions live on to inspire generations of biologists not only to emulate the scientific success he achieved but also to develop the interest and commitment to basic biological science and in particular mycology and microbiology. Personally speaking, he had been a dear maternal uncle, an inspired teacher and the source of every bit of scientific knowledge that I have acquired over the year and his absence is too difficult to accept.

M.C. Srinivasan

Biochemical Sciences Division,

National Chemical Laboratory,

Pune-411 008, India

Prof. K. Natarajan: 1942 - 2008

Dr. K. Natarajan, Professor (Retd.), Centre for Advanced studies in Botany, University of Madras and Past President of Mycological Society of India (MSI) suddenly passed away on 21^th April, 2008 which incidentally happened to be his 65^th birth day.

Dr. K. Natarajan was born at Kovilur (Thanjavur Distt.) in Tamilnadu on 21st April 1942 and had his schooling at Caddalore (T.N.) Later he joined SRKM Vivekananda College at Madras and obtained his B.Sc. Degree in Botany with First Class in 1962 and received Gold Medal from Madras University. After working as Demonstrator in the same College for a brief period he joined the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi and obtained his M.Sc. Degree in Mycology and Plant Pathology. Subsequently he joined the Centre for Advanced Studies in Botany, University of Madras in October 1965 to work for his Ph.D. Degree under the supervision of Prof. C.V. Subramanian and received the Degree in 1970.

Dr. K. Natarajan was appointed as Lecturer in CAS in Botany in July 1968 and was promoted as Reader in July 1976 and then as Professor in 1984, a position which he held until his retirement in June 2002. Subsequently the Madras University designated him as Emeritus Professor in CAS in Botany which he was holding until his death.

Although he started his research career initially working on the taxonomy of soil fungi, especially those present in the rhizosphere of crop plants, subsequently he switched over to studies on the taxonomy of Agaricales on the advice of his mentor, Prof. C.V. Subramanian, who provided him an opportunity to get training in the taxonomy of fleshy fungi with Dr. R.H. Peterson at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, USA under UNESCO exchange program during 1973-1974. After returning to India he initiated studies on Agaric flora of south India and described more than 300 species in a series of research papers which earned him international recognition. Several new taxa have been identified and described by him. He also published a monograph of South Indian Agaricales and another monograph on South Indian Aphyllophorales. Later he developed interest in Ectomycorrhizal association and carried out considerable amount of research work mainly on the factors affecting occurrance of basidomata ,effect of soil type and basidiospore inocula on the establishment of Ectomycorrhiza and the succession pattern of the occurrance of basidiomata. He guided the research work of many M.Sc., M. Phil and Ph.D. students.

Dr. K. Natarajan was internationally acclaimed Mycologist and well known for his contributions especially in the taxonomy of crop fungi. He visited many countries and delivered interested lectures and also participated in several International meetings such as International Mycological Congress, Asian Mycological Congress, IUFRO World Congress and many International Conferences on Mycorrhiza.

Dr. K. Natarajan received several honours. He was awarded UNESCO Fellowhip in 1973-1974 to work at the University of Tennssee Knoxville, USA, Fulbright Research Fellowhip during Sept. 1980-1981 Feb. to March at the Dept. of Forest and Wood Sciences. Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA. He was elected as executive committee member of International Mycological Association during 1994-95. He was invited to contribute a chapter in the document on Global Biodiversity Assessment organised by the United Nations Environment Programme in Paris, France during July 1994. He was also associated with the British Council Collaborative project with the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, Penecoil Scotland and worked with Prof. F.T. Last and colleagues on Ectomycorrhiza. He also collaborated with University Clude Berrard Lyon, France in joint research Project. He successfully completed several research project funded by UGC, CSIR, DST, DBT and MOEF

Dr. Natarajan was associated with several Scientific Societies and his association with Mycological Society of India deserve special mention. He was founder member of MSI and served as Treasurer Secretary, President and look over as Editor of 'Kavaka' (the official publication of MSI) from the year 2000 onwords till his death. He devoted his time and energy for the growth of the Society and so as to bring the Journal on time. His untimely death in the year 2008 is great loss to the MSI.

Dr. Natarajan is survived by his wife, one son and daughter. He is always remembered for his pleasant temperament softspoken and helping nature. He trained several young research students from different parts of India on collection identification and description of fleshy fungi. He was deeply religious and an ardent devotee of Sri Satya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi (A.P.) The discipline of Mycology has lost as outstanding scientist in the death of Dr.K. Natarajan.

B.P.B. Vittal,

Professor (Retd.)

Centre for Advanced Study in Botany,

Guindy Campus,University of Madras,

CHENNAI-600 025