Prof. Shashikumar Madhusudan Chitre (Ph.D. (Cambridge), FMSc, FNASc, FASc, FNA, FRAS, FTWAS) was an apt example of embodiment of modesty, refinement and culture with a heart of kindness and empathy. He was an astrophysicist par excellence, a fine educationist and an able administrator.

Prof. Chitre was born on 7^th May, 1936 in Bandra, Bombay (now Mumbai). He did his early schooling in Parle Tilak Vidyalaya, Vile Parle, Bombay and later in King George School in Dadar, Bombay. He received Dakshina Fellowship (1956-1957) at Elphinstone College, Bombay from where he graduated in 1956 with Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and won the F. M. Dastoor Prize (1956) in Mathematics of University of Bombay. Being the top ranker of the University he was awarded Duke of Edinburgh fellowship (1956) of the University of Bombay to pursue further studies abroad.

Chitre joined Peterhouse College in Cambridge in 1957-60 as a scholar of Cambridge Society of Bombay to read the Mathematical Tripos examination which he cleared with distinction. He obtained his second bachelor’s degree from University of Cambridge in 1959. He was elected scholar of Peterhouse in 1960. Chitre moved to Churchill College on a Gulbenkian research studentship in 1960 and earned his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Cambridge in 1963. Although Professor Leon Mestel was his official thesis supervisor, he was mentored by Prof. Fred Hoyle and Prof. R. J. Tayler. In fact, it was Hoyle who suggested him to work on the “Structure of Sunspots” for the doctoral thesis. Chitre would always remain indebted to Hoyle for this suggestion as solar physics remained central theme of his research all throughout his career. During Cambridge period he formed a lifelong friendship with fellow Indian Astrophysicist, Prof. J. V. Narlikar. Both, Narlikar and Chitre, went on to make lasting impact on India’s progress in Astronomy and Astrophysics in coming decades.

After his doctoral degree he joined as a lecturer in Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Leeds (1963-1966). This department was headed by the leading Astrophysicist Prof. T. G. Cowling who had made key contributions to the early theoretical developments in Magneto-hydrodynamics. On Prof. Cowling’s advice, Chitre joined California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, USA as a Research Fellow in Physics for his research work on solar physics. Although the stay at the Caltech was relatively short (1966-1967), it played a key role in shaping up Chitre’s vision for undergraduate education. It was in Caltech that he got the opportunity to see the leading scientist like Richard Feynman getting actively involved in teaching of undergraduate courses and inspiring students to pursue research in basic sciences. Many years later, when he was asked to set up the Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences (CEBS) on the campus of University of Mumbai, he tried to emulate Caltech model.

After a short stint in Caltech, Chitre returned to India and joined the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai in 1967 from where he retired as Senior Professor-I in 2001. This was the golden era of Astronomy that began with the discovery of pulsars by Jocelyn Bell Burnell in the same year. Realizing the importance of this discovery, Chitre focused his attention on compact objects like neutron stars. This work lead to publications in topmost physics journals such as Nature and Physical Review Letters. Along with V. Canuto, he showed that the crystalline configuration of neutron stars is energetically favored over the liquid state. During this time, he also worked with Kip Thorne, the 2017’s Nobel laureate, on stability of slowly rotating relativistic neutron stars. Around 1975, Chitre got interested in the problem of gravitational lensing. In a few years’ time, he built an active research group consisting of his doctoral students, D. Narasimha and Kandaswamy Subramanian. They produced some very important results on strongly lensed objects and use of lensing to probe the extended structures in the universe. By mid-1980s, this was one of the leading research group working in the area of gravitational lensing. While he was exploring new frontiers of astrophysics, the research on solar physics never really stopped. With his doctoral student H. M. Antia, detailed in-depth investigation of various magneto-hydrodynamics waves and instabilities relevant for solar physics was carried out during this period. This activity laid the foundations for TIFR becoming one of the epicenters of helioseismology research in the world. With helioseismology, it was possible to probe interior of the Sun through solar oscillations, which were initially discovered in 1960s. This idea excited Chitre to play a key role in India becoming a part of global network in solar physics. Along with Arvind Bhatnagar, he was instrumental in setting up one of the six instruments of Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) in Udaipur which became operational in 1995. The research group in TIFR made important contributions in measuring the differential rotation of the Sun. They also confirmed the presence of tachocline at the base of the solar convection zone where the Sun’s rotation undergoes transitions from rigid body rotation to differential rotation. Thus, although it began as a modest theoretical activity with Chitre joining TIFR in 1967, it had evolved into a full-scale national research program on solar physics by the end of 1990s. So, it won’t be an exaggeration to call him as a “father of solar physics in India”. Of course, being quintessential gentleman, he would have dismissed any such title with his trademark quote: “I just did my bit.”

At the beginning of the millennium, when Chitre was about to retire from TIFR after 35 years of service, he had already made plans for his next move. He was getting concerned with the gradual decline in the quality of education offered at Indian universities, especially at the undergraduate level. So post-retirement when he was awarded the Department of Atomic Energy’s prestigious Raja Ramanna Fellowship to continue his services, he promptly accepted it and offered himself to teach at his alma mater. Thus, started his second inning in 2002 from Department of Physics of University of Mumbai. Although even at TIFR he was involved in teaching graduate / Ph. D. level courses, teaching M. Sc. courses at the university required different level of preparation and Chitre was starting it afresh, albeit at the age of 65 when most people want to slowdown and retire quietly. After teaching in the Mumbai University for close to 5 years between 2002 and 2007, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) entrusted him with responsibility of setting up the Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences (CEBS) on the Kalina Campus of the University. This was the unique experiment in the modern history of Indian education where both University of Mumbai and DAE jointly nurtured the institute whose mandate was to impart high quality undergraduate/graduate science education in the university set-up along with the exposure to state-of-art basic research environment. As with any experiment, the institute went through the initial turbulent times but Chitre, the institution builder, guided the ship as the Chairman of the Academic Board for almost a decade. During this period, although he was occupied with various administrative matters of the institute his passion of teaching would remain intact. In the year 2016, the institute was granted the status of “aided institution” under DAE by the Government of India as a recognition of progress made by the institute following which Chitre gracefully stepped down from the post of Chairman of the Academic Board of CEBS. It is important to note that even during this stint when he was handling various academic/administrative affairs of the CEBS, he published as many as 15 research papers working mainly on solar physics.

Prof. Chitre was a UGC National Lecturer in Physics during 1975-1976 and held visiting positions at the universities of Cambridge, Princeton, Sussex, Amsterdam, Columbia, Virginia and was a Max-Planck Fellow at the Max-Planck Institute für Extraterrsttrische Physik, Munich and held Senior Research Associateship of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) at Goddard Space Flight Center NASA. He was a Perren Visiting Fellow and a visiting Professor of Astronomy at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London during 1992-1993, 1994-1995 and 1997 and was a Leverhulme visiting Professor (2001 and 2002) at Queen Mary College, University of London and a visiting astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge during the Easter terms of 2003-2005 and 2007. He was a visiting Professor at the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad during 1999-2000. He was a Raja Ramanna Fellow of DAE at the University of Mumbai during 2001-2006. He was honorary Professor (2000-2003) at Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore.

Prof. Chitre played a pivotal role in several scientific societies. He served as President of the Astronomical Society of India (1992-1994), Chairman, Planetarium Advisory Committee (1985-1988), Vice President, Indian Academy of Sciences (1998-2003), Council Member of Indian Academy of Sciences (Bangalore) (1995-2003), Indian National Science Academy (New Delhi) (1997-1999), and National Academy of Sciences, India, Allahabad; Chairman Bombay Association of Science Education. He was honorary Executive Director of the Homi Bhabha Fellowship Council and a member of the Board of Trustees of the J.N. Tata Endowment and encouraged scholarship in areas beyond science and technology. He was an emeritus trustee of the Cambridge Society of Bombay Scholarship Fund. He was a member of the Management Board of the National Center for Radio Astrophysics. Prof. Chitre served as a member in several academic and scientific committees. He was also the member of the governing council of various national institutes like IIA, IUCAA, HRI.

Prof Chitre’s contributions were recognized in the form of Fellowships of Science Academies and various awards. He was elected as the fellow of the Maharashtra Academy of Sciences (FMASc), Indian Academy of Sciences (Bangalore) (FASc), Indian National Science Academy (New Delhi) (FNA), National Academy of Sciences, India (Allahabad) (FNASc), the Third World Academy of Sciences (Italy) (FTWAS) and the Royal Astronomical Society (UK) (FRAS). Prof Chitre received several awards which include: Professor A. C. Banerjee memorial award lecture of the National Academy of Sciences (1992), INSA Vainu Bappu memorial award (1995), M. P. Birla award (1999). He delivered Perren Lecture at the Queen Mary and Westfield College, London in 1995; Vaidya-Raychaudhuri Endowment Fund lecture - 1999, Kumari L. A. Meera memorial lecture - 2001 and DAE-Raja Ramanna Lecture in Physics -2007. For his outstanding contributions in science the Government of India honored Prof. Chitre with Padma Bhushan (in 2012), the third highest civilian award.

Beyond research and education, Chitre harbored deep interests in arts and literature. He would often encourage CEBS students to visit places like Prithvi Theater to appreciate other forms of creativity. Since his return to India in 1967, he has been actively involved in science outreach activities. He played a key role in setting up of Nehru Planetarium in Mumbai in the year 1977. Incidentally, he lent his voice to the first program of the planetarium for which he was trained by the legendary actor Dilip Kumar. In 1970-80s, Chitre would often appear as a host for various school level science quiz competitions. He along with Prof. Jayant Narlikar, nurtured amateur astronomy clubs in Mumbai like Khagol Mandal.

Chitre was a multifaceted personality, a scientist par excellence, a truly dedicated teacher and an Institution builder. He was the guiding force in the evolutionary phases of the CEBS. The corridors of CEBS will never be the same after his departure for heavenly abode on 11 January 2021. His name is engraved in the annals of astrophysical sciences and will always be remembered with reverence.