A native of India, Lokenath Debnath joined the ECU faculty in the Math Department in 1968. Earlier, Debnath had received his education at the University of Calcutta, completing a bachelor’s degree in pure math in 1954, a master’s in pure math in 1956, and a Ph.D. in pure math in 1965. In 1967, Debnath earned a second Ph.D., this time in applied math, at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, England. The following year he accepted a position as a math faculty at ECU. A specialist in nonlinear waves, the physics of fluids, and plasma physics, Debnath also taught physics at ECU from 1972-1982.
In 1973, Debnath was named editor of the Bulletin of the Calcutta Mathematical Society, making the ECU Math Department the only department in the state at that time to support the editorial office of a major international journal. Already Debnath had distinguished himself as a prolific and innovative scholar, authoring over 100 articles and co-authoring two books on math for graduate students and research scholars. In 1978, Debnath was awarded a senior Fulbright Fellowship for lectures and research in India and the Soviet Union. In 1979, he was honored to be nominated for the University of North Carolina’s O. Max Gardner Award. In 1982, Debnath coordinated an international conference at ECU on nonlinear waves in fluids and plasmas, resulting in publication of a volume, Nonlinear Waves, by Cambridge University Press in 2009.
After leaving ECU in 1982, Debnath first took a position as professor of math and chair of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, and then in 2001, moved to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. In addition to his numerous monographs and scholarly articles, Debnath was one of the founders of the International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences. While an increasingly prolific scholar throughout his career, Debnath’s successes in the field of nonlinear waves trace back to his work at ECU. Equally important, however, was the extent to which Debnath contributed to the diversification of the ECU faculty as well as to its internationalization at the very highest levels.
Sources
- “Debnath Gets ECU Grant.” Danville Register. April 20, 1975. P. 3-B.
- Debnath, Lokenath. Introduction to Hilbert Spaces with Applications. Oxford: Elsevier Academic Press, 2005.
- Debnath, Lokenath. Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations for Scientists and Engineers. Boston: Birkha¨user. 1997.
- Debnath, Lokenath. Nonlinear Waves. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
- Debnath, Lokenath. Sir James Lighthill And Modern Fluid Mechanics. London: Imperial College Press, 2008.
- Debnath, Lokenath. The Legacy of Leonhard Euler: A Tricentennial Tribute. London: Imperial College Press. 2010.
- Debnath, Lokenath. The nomination of Lokenath Debnath for the Oliver Max Gardner Award : January 15, 1979. Greenville, N.C.: East Carolina University, 1979. https://www.worldcat.org/title/nomination-of-lokenath-debnath-for-the-oliver-max-gardner-award-january-15-1979/oclc/5260323&referer=brief_results
- “ECU Math Professor’s Paper Has Been Published.” Rocky Mount Telegram. November 7, 1979. P. 7.
- Moosha, Joe. “Debnath is named editor.” East Carolinian. Vol. 5, no. 15. October 30, 1973. P. 7. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/39887
Citation Information
Title: Lokenath Debnath
Author: John A. Tucker, PhD
Date of Publication: 7/3/2019