The International Conference on Computers and devices for Communication (CODEC) organized by Department of Radio Physics and Electronic, University of Calcutta, was initiated in the year of 1998 in honour of pioneer scientist and late Professor Biswaranjan Nag of Calcutta University where he completed over forty years of colourful research carrier and retired from active service in November 1997.

Professor Nag joined the Department of Radio Physics and Electronic as a lecturer in 1956 and became a professor in 1968. He was designated as the Sisir Kumar Mitra Professor of Calcutta University in 1991.

Professor Nag started his research work on the study of non-linear phenomena in electronic oscillators using his own built differential analyzer. He spent a year (1959-60) at the university of Wisconsin, USA and obtained his M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering on the basis of his work in microwave techniques and parametric amplifiers. Professor Nag was later awarded the Ph. D degree from Calcutta University in 1961.

Since 1961, he worked continuously at the Department of Radio Physics and Electronics and at the department of Electronic Science and established an internationally reputed research school on microwaves and semiconductor studies. Professor Nag was among few scientists all over the world to have started in the early seventies, the first experimental work on the hot electron phenomena in semiconductors which became popular later.

Professor Nag was best known for his extensive and outstanding contributions to the development of electron transport theory, in semiconductors. He formulated a transformed version of Boltzmann equation, supported by a novel iteration technique for the evaluation of galvanometric and the microwave transport coefficients in semiconductors.

Professor Nag was the author of over 200 research publications, 2 internationally acclaimed books on semiconductor transport and several book chapters dealing with different aspects of transport.
Professor Nag supervised the work of more than 20 doctoral students. Many of his research students are now leading workers at various institutions in India and abroad. The achievements of Professor Nag have been recognized by awarding him the J. C. Bose Memorial Prize of the British Institute of Radio Engineers, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, Indian National Academy Prize on Materail Science and the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship. He was also elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Academy of Engineering.

His friends and admirers are spread across the continents and many new entrants in the field are still inspired by his relentless effort in developing and enriching an important branch of semiconductor electronics.