Roy, Ajoy Kumar
Roy, Ajoy Kumar (1935-2019) a physicist, freedom fighter, human rights activist, and freethinker. He was born in Dinajpur. Professor AK Roy studied at the Department of Physics, University of Dhaka, and received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from there. He obtained his PhD. degree from Leeds University, UK. After returning to the Department in 1968, Professor Roy with the assistance of UNESCO, established a research center at the University, Advanced Center of Solid State Physics and Crystallography in 1968-69.
He was appointed lecturer in Physics at Dhaka University in 1961 and retired in 2000 after serving the university for 40 years. Thereafter he was appointed a University Grants Commission (UGC) Professor for two years.
Professor Roy's distinguished research works covered solid-state physics, crystallography, and thin films. His major research interest was in ‘Electron Spin Resonance’, which he applied in the field of Chemical Physics and Radiation Chemistry. He made fundamental contributions to the ‘Disassociative Electron Capture’ process, and his research findings answered to the question of what happens to a captured electron within an organic molecule. The book on electricity and magnetism that he co-authored with Professor Shamsul Hoque and Professor AK Rafiq Ullah was very popular among physics and chemistry undergraduate students in the seventies and eighties of the last century.
Professor Roy was a leading, pragmatic and prominent scholar in physics, other branches of science, philosophy, and Bengali literature. Roy participated in many progressive movements in Bangladesh including the language movement of 1952, anti-Ayub mass upheaval in 1969, the non-cooperation movement of 1971, and, most importantly, the Bangladesh war of liberation in 1971. He was one among the very few teachers of Dhaka University, who were directly involved in the liberation war as a member of the Mukti Bahini (liberation force) engaged in guerrilla warfare on the Cumilla border against the Pakistani army. He also served as General Secretary of the East Pakistan Teachers' Association in Kolkata during the War of Liberation. He took active part in the framing of the 1973 Dhaka University Ordinance. Ajoy Roy played a vital role in the movement for the trial of 1971 war criminals.
Professor Roy had been honored with many awards and accolades. He was bestowed with the Jahanara Imam Memorial Award in 2007, the Bangla Academy Fellowship in 2008, the Asiatic Society Fellowship in 2009, the Bangla Academy Literary Award in 2011, and the Ekushey Padak in 2012. Besides these, he was elected Fellow of the Bangladesh Physical Society, General Secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh in 1972-73, and General Secretary of the Dhaka University Teachers' Association immediately after the liberation of Bangladesh.
Ajoy Kumar Roy died in Dhaka on 9 December 2019. [Yearul Kabir]
