Shri B. Bhattacharjee took over as Director, on April 3, 2001. Earlier, he was Project Director, Rare Materials Project, Mysore, and Director, Chemical Engineering and Technology Group, BARC. He was a key person in the building of the Uranium Corporation of India Limited, Jaduguda, Bihar, which supplies the entire uranium needed for India’s nuclear electricity programme. Later, Bhattacharjee switched over to multidisciplinary R & D activities at BARC, Mumbai, for the development of High Speed Rotor (HSR) needed for producing enriched uranium and other strategic materials. The successful commissioning of HSR technology in India has put the country among a select band and enabled production of some materials of “strategic importance”. Bhattacharjee played a key role in two other projects: desalination plant coupled to a nuclear electricity station and the Special Materials Project. BARC has already supplied 15 desalination plants to different States. A massive desalination plant, adjacent to the Madras Atomic Power Station at Kalpakkam (NDDP), was also constructed under his guidance.