With great sorrow, we inform our readers sad demise of a globally renowned metallurgist Dr R Balasubramanian, who succumbed to cancer at the age of 48 at Kanpur. Dr Bala leaves behind his wife Dr Gyatri Saini Balasubramanian and two daughters.

Dr Bala was a professor at the Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering at IIT Kanpur. He completed B Tech in Metallurgy from IT BHU in 1984 with gold medal and later earned Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy NY in US in 1990.

Dr Bala was an avid musician also. His professional profile and achievements can be viewed at http://www.iitk.ac.in/mme/rbala/index.htm

Fondly known as Corrosion Guru, Dr Bala had unraveled the mystery of the 1,600 year old iron pillar of Kutub Minar, which has not corroded since it was built. To read the article “Looking into Past for Materials of Future” please visit
http://steelguru.com/article/details/2009/04/06/MQ%3D%3D/Phosphoric_Iron.html

To us Dr Bala was more than a friend and we would miss his invaluable input.