The '3rd Sujal Mukherjee Memorial Lecture' to be held on 19th December at Rotary Sadan, Kolkata

The 3rd Sujal Mukherjee Memorial Lecture will be held in Kolkata on 19th December, 2015 at 05:30pm. The guest speaker, Dr. George W Rodway will deliver a talk on "A Little History of Some Big Peaks: The Saga of Medical Science associated with the Struggle for the Heights". A special presentation will be given by the Guest of Honour Sri Harish Kapadia. The title of his talk is "Games Mountaineers Play - A humorous look at mountains and mountaineers, both in mountains and otherwise".

“Sujal Mukherjee (1932-1994) belonged to the first generation mountaineers of West Bengal. He started to trek in the Garwal and Kumaun Himalaya in 1961 and undertook his Basic and Advance Mountaineering Courses in HMI in the years 1964 and 1965. Since his introduction to the Indian Himalaya he remained an active alpinist and a keen rock climber. In the 1980’s, Sujal played a pivotal role in the camping and nature study movement of West Bengal. Inspired by Sujal’s humble, yet dedicated and academic approach to the outdoors and to carry on his legacy; some of his students of rock climbing got together to organize an annual lecture in his memory.” Anindya Mukherjee quotes,  co- host of the Sujal Mukherjee Memorial Lecture.  

George W. Rodway, PhD, represents a combination of scientific researcher, mountaineer, science writer and speaker. An Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California, Davis (USA), his academic work focuses on the cardiopulmonary response to hypoxia, and it has on occasion presented him with the opportunity to climb mountains with scientific intent. Field investigations carried out with colleagues at the University College London on Cho Oyu in 2005 and Everest in 2007 are good examples of this. Climbing the mountain was one of the objectives of these research trips, but the primary intent was to perform a series of novel, yet practical physiological and medical studies that threw new light on how people adapt, and at times fail to adapt, to extreme terrestrial altitudes. An active mountaineer since the late 1970s, his scientific interest in high altitude began with the seasons he spent working as a medic on high altitude ranger patrols for the US National Park Service on Denali (Mt. McKinley, 6194m) in Alaska. Other than many climbs of Denali, he has decades of mountain experiences throughout Canada, Mexico, Europe, and the contiguous 48 states of the US. He started climbing in the Himalaya in 1987 and has become a regular visitor to the Himalayan countries. Although slowing down a bit due to the passage of the years, his interest in the high Himalaya continues unabated with an ascent of the north ridge of Everest in 2011 and co-leader of the successful Indian-American climb of Nanda Devi East in 2014. His interest in the history of science, especially as it concerns high altitude mountaineering, has given rise to many books and articles, including the soon-to-appear textbook he has edited, Mountain Medicine and Technical Rescue. He is the mountain medicine section editor for the journal Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, and is Co-Director of the USA Diploma of Mountain Medicine. He serves international organizations as well, as an Executive Board member of the International Society for Mountain Medicine and, additionally, as Vice President of the Medical Commission of the Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme (UIAA). Last but not least, he is a Life Member of the Himalayan Club, and a member of both the (UK) Alpine Club and American Alpine Club. 

Harish Kapadia is a distinguished Mountaineer from India. He has started his climbing and trekking in Himalaya 50 years ago. He mainly contributed to Himalayan climbing by exploring unknown and remote areas of Himalaya. Some of his major ascends have been of Devtoli (6788 m), Bandarpunch West (6102 m), Parilungbi (6166 m), and, Lungser Kangri (6666 m) the highest peak of Rupshu in Ladakh. He led six major international joint expeditions, four with the British and two with the French, one with the Japanese, to high peaks, like Rimo (7385 m), Chong Kumdan I (7071 m), Sudarshan Parbat (6507 m), Panch Chuli (6904 m) and Rangrik Rang (6553 m) and Padmanabh (7030 m) on the Siachen Glacier. He is the recipient of Patron-s Medal of the Royal Geographic Society, UK, Lifetime Achievement Award for adventure by the president of India, King Albert Mountain award, Gold Medal from IMF and many more. He has authored fifteen books on the Himalayan trekking and climbing. He was elected the Honorary Member of the Alpine Club, London and almost all major Alpine Clubs in the world. He is the former vice president of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation. He is still active on exploring the Himalaya to open new trekking and climbing possibilities.