Michael Lobo

Michael Lobo
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	Indian
Genre	genealogy

Michael Lobo is an Indian writer, and genealogist. He is the author of Mangaloreans Worldwide - An International Directory (1999), Distinguished Mangalorean Catholics (2000), A Genealogical Encyclopaedia of Mangalorean Catholic Families (2000), and The Mangalorean Catholic Community - A Professional History / Directory (2002).

Lobo was born in Mangalore, India. He graduated from St. Aloysius College (Mangalore), and completed his Ph.D degree in 1982. He spent several years at the Cranfield Institute of Technology in England as a faculty member. His literary career began in 1993, when he returned back to Mangalore, and published his books from 1999 onwards. His book A Genealogical Encyclopaedia of Mangalorean Catholic Families is one of the only book of its kind, and has exceeded over 6,000 pages, and is still growing.

Early life and family

Michael Lobo was born on September 12, 1953 in Mangalore to Maisie Lobo (née Fernandes) and Camillo Lobo, both of Mangalorean Catholic origin. Michael's father was an engineering graduate of Imperial College, London, who later joined the British-Indian army, and served with distinction in Egypt and Italy during World War II. Michael's mother's family had migrated to Kallianpur (near Mangalore) from Divarde (Goa) in 1740. Michael's grandfather Lawrence Lobo was a distinguished jurist of his time.

Lobo matriculated from Montfort Boys High School, Yercaud, Tamil Nadu, and later graduated from St. Aloysius College (Mangalore). He went on for post-graduate studies in mathematics. As a student, he was a keen chess player and, in 1975, qualified for the National A (India's top 20). He was also interested in mountaineering, and underwent a course at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling, passing with distinction.

Academic career

He gave up both mountaineering and chess, in favour of an academic career. He joined the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, for research studies in Transonic Aerodynamics. He published five papers on this subject, two of which appeared in the proceedings of the Royal Society, London. Michael was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) degree in 1982, his doctoral thesis earning him the "Young Scientist Award" of the Indian National Science Academy in 1983. In 1984, Michael obtained a Commonwealth Scholarship to the Cranfield Institute of Technology in England, and was subsequently absorbed in it's faculty, being employed there until 1993. During this period, he was engaged in contract research for a consortium of British Industry, including Rolls Royce and British Aerospace. Michael also supervised a number of Ph.D. students from various countries such as Bangladesh, Brazil, Greece, Taiwan, Venezuela, and Britain. He also authored a few technical works in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), a notable paper of his being Time Marching - A Step-by-step Guide to a Flow Solver, published by Ashgate Press.

Literary career

The second phase of his professional career as a writer began in in 1993, when Lobo permanently returned to Mangalore, due to various personal crisis. Lobo possessed an inclination for writing books, while on the staff at Cranfield (1984-93). During his spare time, he complied a 1000-page dictionary of English words deriving from Classical Greek. Samples of this work drew appreciative comments from various publishers, notably Oxford University Press, but the general impression was that the demand for the book would not suffice to meet the cost of publication, and this work remained unpublished. During his final years at Cranfield (1992-93), he also worked on a book of origins of popular songs dating from the Rock'n'roll era, back to the 19th century and even earlier. However, partly due to copyright problems on lyrics, this book also remained unpublished.

Since 1994, Lobo was involved, on a full-time basis, on a research project on the history and genealogy of the Mangalorean Catholic community. The project took shape as the A Genealogical Encyclopaedia of Mangalorean Catholic Families, which was published in 2000. This encyclopaedia is probably the only work of its kind in existence. It covers over a thousand families, each of which is researched as far back as its ancestry can be traced in Mangalore. Though the encyclopedia is incomplete, three offshoots of this encyclopedia have also been launched by Lobo, Mangaloreans Worldwide - An International Directory (1999), Distinguished Mangalorean Catholics 1800-2000 - A Historico-Biographical Survey of the Mangalorean Catholic Community (2000), and The Mangalorean Catholic Community - A Professional History / Directory (2002).

Works

• Mangaloreans Worldwide - An International Directory (1999)
• Distinguished Mangalorean Catholics 1800-2000 - A Historico-Biographical Survey of the Mangalorean Catholic Community (2000)
• A Genealogical Encyclopaedia of Mangalorean Catholic Families (2000)
• The Mangalorean Catholic Community - A Professional History / Directory (2002)