Background
Maharajapuram Sitaram Krishnan was born on 24 August 1889 in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India.
Maharajapuram Sitaram Krishnan was born on 24 August 1889 in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India.
After school education in Tanjore, he continued his studies in St.Joseph's College, Trichinapoly. He graduated with Bachelor of Arts Honours in geology from the Presidency College, Madras, in 1919, undertook post-graduate training and research with ARCS (Associate-ship of Royal College of Science) Scholarship at Imperial College London in 1921 and received his Diploma of Imperial College (DIC) in 1923 and in 1924, he was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy from London University.
For two years after receiving his honours degree, Dr. Krishnan was employed as Demonstrator in Geology at Presidency College, Madras. He was appointed as Assistant Superintendent (Geologist) in the superior service in the Geological Survey of India and joined the department in December 1924 where Dr. Krishnan worked alongside Lewis Fermor, C. S. Fox, J. A. Dunn, Alexander M. Heron, H. C. Jones, and J. B. Auden.
In 1943, he was promoted as Superintending Geologist and was posted as Director for newly formed Indian Bureau of Mines. He left the post in February, 1951 to become permanent Director (The first Indian to occupy it) of Geological Survey of India. After four years he was transferred to New Delhi as Mineral Adviser and Ex-Officio Joint Secretary to the Government of India (Ministry of Scientific Research) in August, 1955. In April, 1957 he was transferred to Indian School of Mines as its first Director to organize the expanded courses in mining and newly started course in Applied Geophysics and Petroleum Technology.
Dr. Krishnan worked on stratigraphic mapping in Gangpur, Bonai, Bamra and Keonjar (parts of present Orissa State) and identified the 'Gangpur Series' published in GSI Memoir 71 (1937). He also worked on minerals of economic importance including iron, manganese ores, gypsum, mica, limestone and published his studies in the GSI Memoir 80 (1952). Dr. Krishnan also worked on the rocks of Girnar and the Osham hills of Saurashtra (now in Gujarat), lateritization of the peculiar metasedimentary rocks called khondalite, the mineral resources of former Central Provinces and Berar (now forming parts of Madhya Pradesh), the geology of the Vindhyan formations of northern India, the Deccan traps, the Tertiaries of Tanjore (Tamil Nadu), and made observations on mythical rivers such as the Indobrahm and Saraswathi.
