If passion can be guiding force to pursue anything although it is not profitable, then Oriya scientist, late Dr Dhirendra Narayan Nanda’s life story holds good for this notion. He invented Quantum theory but his work went unnoticed in his own soil.

DR DHIRENDRA Narayan Nanda, the inventor of Quantum theory is one of the nominees for the Science Award this year to be given by the Orissa Vigyan Akademi. Although Nanda’s scientific achievements have been appreciated worldwide, he is still an unknown figure in the state, even nine years after his death.

Born and brought up in Bhadrak, Nanda was determined and sincere in studies since his childhood. He evinced interest in homeopathy during his college days and did research work in the same field. The discovery in homeopathy helped him to know the reason for the slow but sure actions of the homeopathic medicines. Later, he left a flourishing career in chemistry to take up the cause of research work. His initial efforts were to develop the Quantum theory.

Nanda joined Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur as a research scholar and received a scholarship award by the American Chemical Society as the best graduate. In 1974, he did his Ph D there, and three years later, joined Hanover University as a post-doctoral researcher. Famous scientist Prof Karl Jug hailed his theory of SINDO1, who was impressed with Nanda’s work, as at least five scientists had worked in this field before him but failed to come up with what the Oriya scientist achieved.

Man… how come this kind of thing can be happened?
I really don’t understand.

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