Thanu Padmanabhan
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Thanu Padmanabhan | |
|---|---|
| Born | 10 March 1957 |
| Nationality | Indian  |
| Alma mater | Kerala University TIFR |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | TIFR Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics |
Thanu Padmanabhan, (born. 10th March 1957, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala) (Malayalam: താണു പദ്മനാഭന്) is an Indian theoretical physicist. He is currently Distinguished Professor at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, (IUCAA) at Pune, India. His principal fields of research are Cosmology and the interface between Gravity and Quantum theory.
Life and career
Padmanabhan did his schooling in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala and did his B.Sc (1977) and M.Sc (1979) in Physics from University College, Kerala University, securing Gold Medals for his academic brilliance. He published his first research paper (on general relativity) when he was a B.Sc student, at the age of 20. He joined TIFR, Mumbai for PhD and became a faculty member there in 1980 where he continued till 1992. He moved to IUCAA in 1992 and is currently the Dean of Core Academic Programmes.
He has served as visiting faculty at many institutes including the California Institute of Technology, Princeton University and the Pennsylvania State University as well as the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge.
He is married to Dr. Vasanthi Padmanabhan, who has a Ph.D in astrophysics from TIFR, Mumbai.
Research contributions
Padmanabhan has worked in several contemporary areas of theoretical physics like quantum cosmology, structure formation in the universe, statistical mechanics of gravitating systems, black holes and quantum gravity and has published nearly 200 papers in leading international journals. His current research interest is in understanding the nature of dark energy in the universe and its implications for quantum gravity. He has developed a new, holographic, perspective on Gravity which has the potential of resolving some of the difficult problems in quantum gravity.[1], [2]
Apart from his scientific research, Padmanabhan has given many popular science lectures and authored more than a hundred popular science articles published in various national and international journals.
Awards and distinctions
Padmanabhan has received several national and international awards including the Birla Science Prize (1991), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award (1996), the Millennium Medal ( CSIR, 2000), Al-Khwarizmi International Award (2002), Sackler Distinguished Astronomer (Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge), Miegunah Fellowship Award (University of Melbourne, Australia, 2004) and the G.D.Birla Award for Scientific Research (2003). His work has won awards from the Gravity Research Foundation, USA four times, in 1984, 2002, 2003 and 2006. He is an elected Fellow of the three National Academies of Science in India. Some of his research papers have been rated as the most influential paper of the year. He has also been awarded the Padmashri award from the Government of India in the year 2007. [3],[4].
Main publications
Books
- Gravity, Gauge Theories and Quantum Cosmology, with J.V. Narlikar, Reidel. (1986)
- Structure Formation in the Universe, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (1993)
- Cosmology and Astrophysics through Problems, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (1996)
- After the First Three Minutes- The Story of Our Universe, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (1998) - reviews cited at[5]
- Theoretical Astrophysics - Volume I Physical Processes, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (2000)
- Theoretical Astrophysics - Volume II Stars and Stellar Systems, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (2001)
- Theoretical Astrophysics - Volume III Galaxies and Cosmology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (2002)
- An Invitation to Astrophysics, World Scientific, Singapore, (2006)
Review articles
- Statistical Mechanics of Gravitating Systems, Physics Reports, vol.188, pp. 285-362 (1990)
- Cosmological Constant - the Weight of the Vacuum, Physics Reports,vol. 380, pp. 235-320 (2003)
- Gravity and the Thermodynamics of Horizons, Physics Reports, vol.406, p. 49 (2005)
- Understanding Our Universe: Current Status and Open Issues, in, `100 Years of Relativity - Space-time Structure: Einstein and Beyond', A.Ashtekar (Editor), World Scientific (Singapore) pp 175-204 (2005)