Prof. Bimla Buti was a highly acclaimed Plasma Physicist of international repute. She did her Ph.D. with Nobel Laureate Prof. S Chandrasekhar in 1962 from the University of Chicago. She worked at Delhi University, GSFC (NASA) and IIT Delhi (1962-70). She was invited by the then Director of PRL, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, to join as faculty at PRL. She spent twenty-three years of her professional life as Associate Professor, Professor, Senior Professor and Dean of Faculty there. Prof. Buti established a very strong group in plasma physics, both theoretical and experimental, at PRL that eventually moved out of PRL to form a new institute, now known as the Institute for Plasma Research under the Department of Atomic Energy.  

Prof. Buti founded the Plasma Science Society of India and served as its President (1992-93). She was an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, USA (1977-83) and served as Vice President (1988-91) and President, Commission 49, International Astronomical Union (1991-94).

Prof. Buti was the first Indian woman Physicist Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) and The Academy of Sciences of the Developing World (TWAS). She had been the Director of Plasma Physics at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy, during 1985-2003.  Besides publishing a large number of research papers, she has edited four books. She also trained a number of students. Her contributions to physical sciences have been celebrated with awards, such as INSA-Vainu Bappu Award, Vikram Sarabhai Award, Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Lectureship Award, Professional Achievement Award of University of Chicago, USA (1996), and US Medal for Fundamental Contributions in the Physics of Nonlinear Waves and Chaos (2010), NASI Prof. Megh Nad Saha Memorial Award (2013), NASI A.C. Banerji Memorial Award (2017) and IPA R.D. Birla Award (2020).

After her superannuation, she spent four years at JPL (NASA), Pasadena. She was into social work through the Buti foundation, founded by her in 2003, and instituted a number of awards through Physical Research Laboratory, Indian Physics Association, National Academy of Sciences (NASI) and awards for young scientists through Plasma Science Society of India as well as GSA Award for Science Communication; a scholarship and a Gold Medal for the best woman Scientist at IIT, Delhi, Madras and Indore.

Prof. Anandmayee Tej
Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology