Madhu Sudan Kanungo (1 April 1927 – 26 July 2011) was an Indian scientist in the field of gerontology and neuroscience as well as a teacher of molecular biology and biochemistry. He is known for his theories on how gene expression changes with age and the role of this phenomenon in ageing, which is a widely accepted as "Gene expression theory of Aging". In recognition of his contributions, he was awarded India's fourth highest civilian award, Padma Shri in 2005. He held the post of BHU Emeritus professor in zoology at the Banaras Hindu University and was also the Chancellor, Nagaland University till his death. Education He completed his Bachelors in Science from Utkal University in the year 1949. After that he moved to Lucknow University from where he completed his MSc in Zoology in 1951. After a short tenure of doing research at Lucknow university followed by serving as a lecturer in Zoology at the Ravenshaw College, Cuttack, he went to the University of Illinois (Urbana), US for advanced studies. He has completed his PhD on Physiology under the famous scientist Prof. Clifford Ladd Prosser from University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, US in 1959 where he worked on the physiological and biochemical adaptation of goldfish to temperature variation and studied its effect on oxygen consumption under both normal and experimental conditions. He also studied oxygen consumption and oxidative phosphorylation of liver mitochondria of goldfish as a part of the same study. Professional life He started his early life as a lecturer in Zoology, Ravenshaw College, Cuttack. He then joined Utkal University in Feb. 1961 as a Reader in Zoology and continued teaching for a year. He joined the Department of Zoology at Banaras Hindu University and served as a reader (1962–69) and as a professor (1970–87). He was Head, Department of Zoology (1974–76 and 1980–82), Coordinator of the Center of Advanced Study, and Dean, Faculty of Science (1986) at Banaras Hindu University. Professor Kanungo was founder Director of Institute of Lifesciences, Bhubaneswar in 1989, established by Government of Odisha which was taken over by Department of Biotechnology, Government of India in 2002 and declared a National Centre for excellence in 2003. He served as Emeritus Professor of Banaras Hindu University from 1993 to 2011. He was an active and popular teacher of physiology and biochemistry at Banaras Hindu University for more than 40 years. For research, he took up