famous indian scientists

Abhas Mitra (born June 3, 1955) is an Indian astrophysicist best known for his distinct views on several frontline astrophysics concepts, particularly black holes and Big Bang Cosmology Mitra have regularly questioned the mainstream cosmological concepts of Big Bang and Black Hole, He claims to have offered exact proofs that (i) The socalled Black Holes cannot be true black black holes even within the context of classical General relativity and (ii) The Big Bang solution is illusory and actual universe must be fundamentally different from the big bang paradigmConsequently Dark Energy, his research claims, is an illusion caused by the departure of the complex universe from the simple big bang modelAs of 2014, he heads the theoretical astrophysics section of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India
Though Mitra stresses that the `Black Hole solutions are correct, his contention is that Black Hole masses, arising from relevant integration constants, are actually zero His peer reviewed paper published in Journal of Mathematical Physics of the American Institute of Physics supports this contention by showing that Schwarzschild black holes have M = 0[27] If so, (i) The socalled massive Black Hole Candidates (BHCs) must be quasiblack holes rather than exact black holes and (ii) During preceding gravitational collapse, entire mass energy and angular momentum of the collapsing objects must be radiated away before formation of exact mathematical black holes And since the formation of a mathematical zero mass black hole requires infinite proper time, continued gravitational collapse becomes eternal, and the socalled black hole candidates must be Eternally Collapsing Objects (ECO)Mitras peer reviewed papers describe why continued physical gravitational collapse should lead to formation of ECOs rather than true black holes, and the mathematical ``black hole states can be achieved only asymptotically An ECO is essentially a quasistable ultracompact ball of fire (plasma) which is so hot due to preceding gravitational contraction that its outward radiation pressure balances its inward pull of gravity Some American astrophysicists claimed to have verified this prediction that astrophysical Black Hole Candidates are actually ECOs rather than true mathematical black holes The corresponding Harvard University Press Release acknowledges Mitras original contribution in this context

Abhay Vasant Ashtekar (born July 5, 1949) is an Indian theoretical physicist He is the Eberly Professor of Physics and the Director of the Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry at Pennsylvania State University As the creator of Ashtekar variables, he is one of the founders of loop quantum gravity and its subfield loop quantum cosmology He has also written a number of descriptions of loop quantum gravity that are accessible to nonphysicists In 1999, Ashtekar and his colleagues were able to calculate the entropy for a black hole, matching a legendary 1974 prediction by Hawking Oxford mathematical physicist Roger Penrose has described Ashtekars approach to quantum gravity as The most important of all the attempts at quantizing general relativity
Abhay Ashtekar grew up in several cities, including Mumbai, in the state of Maharashtra, India After completing his undergraduate education in India, Ashtekar enrolled in the graduate program for gravitation at the University of Texas at AustinHe went on to complete his PhD at the University of Chicago under the supervision of Robert Geroch in 1978 and held several appointments at Oxford, Paris, Syracuse before settling at Penn StateHe married Christine Clarke in 1986 and the two have a son, Neil Ashtekar

Anil Bhardwaj (born June 1, 1967) is the Director of the Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, ISRO, Trivandrum, India He is the recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in 2007, and was awarded NRC Senior Research Associteship by US National Academy of Science in 2003 He worked at Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, during January 2004 to October 2005 He was awarded fellowship grant by United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs, Vienna, Austria, in 1996 He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore; Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi; Indian Geophysical Union, Hyderabad; and Kerala Academy of Sciences, Trivandrum He was also awarded ISRO Team Excellence Award for Chandrayaan1 Science and Mission in 2008 He is a member of International Astronomical Union Currently, he is the member of INSAICSU Committee for COSPAR, SCOSTEP and URSI, and ViceChair of COSPAR Commission B
Dr Bhardwaj did his graduation in Maths, Statistics, and Physics with Honours, and obtained his Master of Science degree in Physics from Lucknow University He received his Doctorate Degree in Applied Physics (Planetary and Space Science) in 2002 from Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi As a Planetary and Space Scientist, Dr Bhardwajs research interests include theoretical and observational studies of planetary surfaces, atmospheres, ionospheres, and their coupling with magnetospheric plasma and solar wind His Current Research Interests are: Aurora and airglow processes in planetary atmospheres, chemistry of planetary ionospheres, auroral plasma processes on comets and its implications on coma chemistry, Monte Carlo simulations of processes in atmosphere, solar windlunar interaction, ENA imaging of the lunar surface and Earths magnetosphereionosphere system, groundbased and spacebased multiwavelength (Xray, UV, visible, radio) imaging and spectroscopy of emissions from planetary bodies, and comparative planetology The planetary bodies on which worked include, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Triton, Titan, Io plasma torus, Rings of Saturn, Venus, Mars, Earth, Moon, and Comets Dr Bhardwaj has been the Principal Investigator of the SARA (SubkeV Atom Reflecting Analyzer) experiment on the Chandrayaan1 mission

Anil Kakodkar is an Indian nuclear scientist and mechanical engineer He was the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India and the Secretary to the Government of India, he was the Director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay from 19962000 He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, Indias second highest civilian honour, on January 26, 2009 Apart from playing a major role in Indias nuclear tests asserting sovereignty, Kakodkar champions Indias selfreliance on thorium as a fuel for nuclear energy
Kakodkar was born in 1943 (November 11, 1943), in Barwani princely state (present day Madhya Pradesh state) to Kamala Kakodkar and Purushottam Kakodkar, both Gandhian freedom fighters He had his early education at Barwani and at Khargone, until moving to Mumbai for postmatriculation studiesKakodkar graduated from Ruparel College, then from VJTI, University of Mumbai with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1963 He joined the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in 1964 He obtained a masters degree in experimental stress analysis from the University of Nottingham in 1969
He joined the Reactor Engineering Division of the BARC and played a key role in design and construction of the Dhruva reactor, a completely original but hightech project He was a part of the core team of architects of Indias Peaceful Nuclear Tests in 1974 and 1998 Further he has led the indigenous development in Indias Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor Technology His work in the rehabilitation of the two reactors at Kalpakkam and the first unit at Rawatbhata, which at one stage were on the verge of being written off, are examples of his engineering capability In 1996 he became Director of the BARC and since 2000 he is leading the Atomic Energy Commission of India and also is the secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy He has published over 250 scientific papers He believes that India should be selfreliant in energy, especially by use of the cheap national thorium resources Today, he continues to engage in designing the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor, that uses thoriumuranium 233 as the primary energy source with plutonium as the driver fuel The unique reactor system, with simplified but safe technology, will generate 75 per cent of electricity from thorium

Animesh Chakraborty (born June 30, 1935) is a Bengali Indian academic and a professor of chemistry In 1975, he was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in chemistry by the Council of Scientific and Industrial ResearchAfter his graduation from the Scottish Church College, he did his postgraduation from the University of CalcuttaHe had subsequently earned a doctorate in chemistry from the University of CalcuttaHe had started as a research associate at the MIT and Harvard He had also served as professor and head of the department of chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, and as professor and head of the department of inorganic chemistry at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science at the University of Calcutta, and as a visiting professor at the Texas A&M University He was also the Hindustan Lever Research Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research He had guided fifty eight PhDs and numerous postdoctoral associates, many of the former students have become well known personalities and are doing outstanding work in academic and industrial organizations in India and abroad

Anna Mani (23 August 1918 ? 16 August 2001) was an Indian physicist and meteorologist.She was the Deputy Director General of the Indian Meteorological Department. She made significant contributions in the field of meteorological instrumentation. She conducted research and published numerous papers on solar radiation, ozone and wind energy measurements.Anna Mani was born in Peerumedu, Travancore. Her father was a civil engineer. She was the seventh of eight children in her family. During her childhood, she was a voracious reader. She was impressed by the activities of Gandhi during Vaikom satyagraha. Inspired by the nationalist movement, she took to wearing only Kh?d? garments. She wanted to pursue medicine, but she decided in favour of physics because she liked the subject. In 1939, she graduated from the Presidency College in Madras, with a B.Sc Honors degree in physics and chemistry.After graduating from the Presidency college, she worked under Prof. C V Raman, researching the optical properties of ruby and diamond.She authored five research papers, but she was not granted a PhD because she did not have a master's degree in physics. Then she moved to Britain to study pursue physics, but she ended up studying meteorological instruments at Imperial College London. After returning to India in 1948, she joined the Meteorological department in Pune. She published numerous research papers on meteorological instrumentation. She retired as the deputy director general of the Indian Meteorological department in 1976. She authored two books, The Handbook for Solar Radiation data for India in 1980 and Solar Radiation over India in 1981. She won the K.R. Ramanathan Medal in 1987.

Arun Majumdar is a materials scientist, engineer, and Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay graduate who was President Barack Obamas nominee for the Under Secretary of Energy between November 30, 2011 and May 15, 2012He formerly ran the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he was also deputy director of LBNL as well as professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley He was nominated to be the first director of the US Department of Energys Advanced Research Projects AgencyEnergy (ARPAE) and appointed to that position in September 2009 On May 15, 2012, the White House withdrew Majumdars nominationOn Dec 17, 2012, Google announced that Arun joined Google to drive Googleorgs energy initiatives and advise the company on their broader energy strategy Arun is a leading scientist in the fields of thermoelectric materials, heat and mass transfer, thermal management, and waste heat recovery He has published several hundred papers, patents, and conference proceedings, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering On August 16, 2012, Arun Majumdar copublished a paper in Nature with United States Secretary of Energy Steven Chu on Opportunities and Challenges for a Sustainable Energy Future, as well as gave a talk on the paper on the subject at Stanford University

Arun N Netravali (born 26 May 1946 in Mumbai, India) is an IndianAmerican computer engineer who has contribution in digital technology including HDTV He conducted seminal research in digital compression, signal processing and other fields Netravali was the last President of Bell Laboratories and Chief Scientist for Lucent Technologies before they went bankrupt He was born in Indore He received his undergraduate degree from the IIT Bombay, India, and an MS and a PhD from Rice University in Houston, Texas all in electrical engineering He taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, and Rutgers University

Arvind Bhatnagar made significant contributions to Solar Astronomy, and founded several planetaria across India He was the founderdirector of the Udaipur Solar Observatory, and the founder director of Nehru Planetarium of Bombay Prof Arvind Bhatnagar was known internationally for his significant contributions to Solar Astronomy He was the founderdirector of the Udaipur Solar Observatory He also took immense interest in popularization of astronomy and helped establishing several planetaria across India Arvind Bhatnagar was born in Beawar,Rajasthan on 19 November 1936 After completing his MSc in Physics,he joined the UP State Observatory, Nainital, in 1958 and worked there until 1961 He obtained his PhD degree in Solar Physics in 1964 from Agra University while working at the Kodaikanal Observatory under the guidance of Prof M K Vainu Bappu
He was awarded the Carnegie Fellowship to work at Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories, USA, during 196870 Afterwards he worked as a Resident Astronomer at the Big Bear Solar Observatory of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA till 1972In 1972, Prof Bhatnagar returned to India to establish a unique island solar observatory in the middle of Lake Fatehsagar in Udaipur under the aegis of the Vedhshala,Ahmedabad This lake site was carefully selected by him after taking into consideration the facts that Rajasthan received the maximum sunshine and the large body of lake water helps to stabilize the air turbulence arising due to heating of ground by the solar radiation Due to his efforts, the solar observatory was taken over by the Department of Space in December 1981 for its speedy growth, and was affiliated to the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad The Udaipur Solar Observatory has become internationally renowned as one of the major centers for highresolution solar observations It is also one of the six observatories located around the world participating in the Global Oscillations Network Group (GONG) for the study of solar interior
Another important event in Dr Arvind Bhatnagars Scientific tryst was on 24 October 1995, during the Total Solar Eclipse, where Dr Arvind Bhatnagar supervised the MiG25 aircraft flying at 80,000 feet altitude as they traveled along the path of the eclipse at 3,000 km/h, gaining several precious minutes of observation denied to researchers stuck on the groundThis was an attempt by Indian Scientists to pin down the exact diameter of the sunwhich today still remains unknown, by precisely measuring the suns shadow cast on the earth Three Indian Air Force planes were deployed with cameramen and scientists to examine the umbra Separately, a pair of IAF MiG25 fighters were fitted with equipment to photograph the outer solar corona and also the dust rings around it, in the darkest, clearest possible sky
In 1996, Prof Bhatnagar started a novel project called SUCHE (Swatch, Healthy,Urban, Clean and Hygienic Environment) Abhiyan in several localities of Udaipur under ASTHA Sansthan for solid waste management through public participation He was also appointed as one of the High Court Commissioners to monitor the directives of the High Court in connection with protection of the lake system of UdaipurProf Arvind Bhatnagar died on the evening of 18 May 2006 at Udaipur leaving behind a large void in both scientific as well as social front

Ashok Gadgil (born 1950 in India) Is Director of the Energy and Environmental Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley He specializes in heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and design for development He also has substantial experience in technical, economic, and policy research on energy efficiency and its implementation particularly in developing countries He is best known for his work with two developingworld technologies: UV Waterworks (a simple and effective and inexpensive water disinfection system), and the BerkeleyDarfur Stove (a lowcost stove to that saves fuelwood in internally displaced persons camps in Darfur)Dr Gadgil holds a PhD in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley and an MSc in Physics from Indian Institute of Technology, KanpurAt LBNL Dr Gadgil is Director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division, with a staff of approximately 550 Earlier, he led a group of about 20 researchers conducting experimental and modeling research in indoor airflow and pollutant transport Most of that work was focused on protecting building occupants from the threat of chemical and biological attacks In recent years, he has worked on ways to inexpensively remove arsenic from Bangladesh drinking water, and on improving cookstoves for Darfur (Sudan) refugees Concurrently, Dr Gadgil is Professor of Environmental Engineering at University of California, Berkeley Dr Gadgil has substantial experience in technical, economic, and policy research on energy efficiency and its implementation particularly in developing countries He has authored or coauthored more than 90 journal papers, and more than 100 conference papers In 1998 and again in 2006, Dr Gadgil was invited by the Smithsonian Institutions Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation to speak at the National Museum of American History about his life and work