Accolades for Tarapore

In recognition of his outstanding contribution in the field of hydraulic research, the Indian Society for Hydraulics (ISH) presented its Lifetime Achievement Award for 2008 to Dr Zal Sohrab Tarapore on December 15, 2008.

The citation, signed by P. B. Deolalikar, president of ISH, lists the Poona-based scientist’s impressive list of degrees and achievements. Recipient of the Padma Shri in 1992 for his exploration of water resources for irrigation, power, transportation, etc, Tarapore retired as director of Poona’s Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS) in 1991 (see "Riding the tide,” Parsiana, October 1992), after which he continued to serve the institute in an advisory capacity. Post-retirement, Tarapore "initiated the diversification water and power consultancy services into areas of port design and construction, helping major industries in setting up captive port facilities,” lists the ISH citation. Currently the scientist, who has authored an impressive number of technical papers at the national and international level, is working as director of the Danish Hydraulic Institute (India), an independent international consulting organization conducting research in the fields of water, environment and health, with its head office in Denmark.

Dr Zal Tarapore (right) receiving Lifetime Achievement Award

Born in 1933 Tarapore obtained his BSc (civil engineering) from the University of Edinburgh, UK in 1953 and subsequently his MS and PhD degrees in hydraulics from the University of Minnesota in the US in 1956 and 1962 respectively. The following year he joined the CWPRS as chief research officer and spent the major part of his career at that institute. He was advisor to the ports of Pulupan­dan in the Philippines and to the Port of Singapore Authority. As the result of a 20-year contract signed with the latter, Singa­pore port went "from its first container berth to become the second largest terminal in the world,” the citation states.

Under Tarapore’s guidance, "CWPRS pioneered the modeling of warm water discharges into the water environment — rivers, lakes and along the coast… and gave an impetus to the mathematical modeling of river, estuarine and coastal waters,” as per the citation. It also mentions that during his career Tarapore was appointed by the United Nations Development Program­me to handle a project for upgrading the Hydraulic Institute in Hanoi, Vietnam and as technical advisor by the same agency for strengthening the Water Resources Research Institute in Tehran, Iran.