famous indian scientists

Ashoke Sen is an Indian theoretical physicist and distinguished professor at the HarishChandra Research Institute, Allahabad He also is the Morningstar Visiting professor at MIT His main area of work is String Theory He was among the first recipients of the Fundamental Physics Prize for opening the path to the realisation that all string theories are different limits of the same underlying theory This richly endowed prize has been set up by the Russian billionaire Yuri Milner for rewarding scientific breakthroughs Ashoke Sen was the only recipient from Asia of this inaugural prize
He was born in Calcutta, and is the elder son of Anil Kumar Sen, a former professor of physics at the Scottish Church College, and Gouri Sen, a homemaker After completing his schooling from the Sailendra Sircar Vidyalaya in Kolkata, he earned his bachelors of science degree in 1975 from the Presidency College under the University of Calcutta, and his masters three years later from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur He did his doctoral work in physics at Stony Brook UniversityAshoke Sen made a number of major original contributions to the subject of string theory, including his landmark paper on strongweak coupling duality or Sduality, which was influential in changing the course of research in the field He pioneered the study of unstable Dbranes and made the famous Sen conjecture about open string tachyon condensation on such branes His description of rolling tachyons has been influential in string cosmology He has also coauthored many important papers on string field theory In 1998 he won the fellowship of the Royal Society on being nominated by the theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking His contributions include the entropy function formalism for extremal black holes and its applications to attractors His current research interests are centered around the attractor mechanism and the precision counting of microstates of black holes

Birbal Sahni (14 November 1891 ? 10 April 1949) was an Indian paleobotanist who studied the fossils of the Indian subcontinent, was also a geologist who took an interest in archaeology. He founded the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany in Lucknow, India. His greatest contributions lie in the study of botany of the plants of India as well as paleobotany. Apart from writing numerous influential papers on these topics he also served as the President of the National Academy of Sciences, India and as an Honorary President of the International Botanical Congress, Stockholm. He died on 10 April 1949.In 1917, Sahni joined Professor Seward to work on a 'Revision of Indian Gondwana plants' (1920, Palaeontologica Indica). In 1919 he briefly worked in Munich under the German plant morphologist Goebel. In 1920 he married Savitri Suri, daughter of Sunder Das Suri who was an Inspector of Schools in Punjab. Savitri took an interest in his work and was a constant companion. Sahni returned to India and served as Professor of Botany at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi and Punjab University for about a year. He was appointed the first Professor and Head of the Botany Department of the Lucknow University in 1921. The University of Cambridge recognized his researches by the award of the degree of Sc. D. in 1929. In 1932 Palaeontologica Indica included his account of the Bennettitalean plant that he named Williamsonia Sewardi, and another description of a new type of petrified wood, Homoxylon, bearing resemblance to the wood of a living homoxylous angiosperm, but from the Jurassic age. During the following years he not only continued his investigations but collected around him a group of devoted students from all parts of the country and built up a reputation for the University which soon became the first Center for botanical and palaeobotanical investigations in India. Sahni maintained close relations with researchers around the globe, being a friend of Chester A. Arnold, noted American paleobotanist who later served his year in residence from 1958-1959 at the institute. He was a founder of The Paleobotanical Society which established the Institute of Palaeobotany on 10 September 1946 which initially functioned in the Botany Department of Lucknow University but later moved to its present premises at 53 University Road, Lucknow in 1949. On 3 April 1949 the Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone of the new building of the Institute. A week later, on 10 April 1949, Sahni succumbed to a heart attack.
Sahni was recognized by several academies and institutions in India and abroad for his research. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London (FRS) in 1936, the highest British scientific honor, awarded for the first time to an Indian botanist. He was elected Vice-President, Palaeobotany section, of the 5th and 6th International Botanical Congresses of 1930 and 1935, respectively; General President of the Indian Science Congress for 1940; President, National Academy of Sciences, India, 1937?1939 and 1943-1944. In 1948 he was elected an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Another high honor which came to him was his election as an Honorary President of the International Botanical Congress, Stockholm in 1950, but he died before he could serve. After his demise, Sahni's samadhi was placed within the Institute of Paleobotany as a reminder of his groundbreaking work.

Brahmaguptawas an Indian mathematician and astronomer who wrote two important works on Mathematics and Astronomy: the Br?hmasphu?asiddh?nta (Extensive Treatise of Brahma) (628), a theoretical treatise, and the Kha??akh?dyaka, a more practical text There are reasons to believe that Brahmagupta originated from Bhinmal Brahmagupta was the first to give rules to compute with zero The texts composed by Brahmagupta were composed in elliptic verse, as was common practice in Indian mathematics, and consequently has a poetic ring to it As no proofs are given, it is not known how Brahmaguptas mathematics was derivedIn the Br?hmasphu?asiddh?nta verses 7 and 8 of chapter XXIV state that Brahmagupta composed this text at the age of thirty in ?aka 550 (= 628 CE) during the reign of King Vy?ghramukha, we can thus gather that he was born in 598 Commentators refer to him as a great scholar from Bhinmal, a city in the state of Rajasthan of Northwest India In ancient times Bhillamala was the seat of power of the Gurjars His father was Jisnugupta He likely lived most of his life in Bhillamala (modern Bhinmal in Rajasthan) during the reign (and possibly under the patronage) of King Vyaghramukha As a result, Brahmagupta is often referred to as Bhillamalacharya, that is, the teacher from Bhillamala He was the head of the astronomical observatory at Ujjain, and during his tenure there wrote four texts on mathematics and astronomy: the Cadamekela in 624, the Brahmasphutasiddhanta in 628, the Khandakhadyaka in 665, and the Durkeamynarda in 672 The Brahmasphutasiddhanta (Extensive Treatise of Brahma) is arguably his most famous work The historian alBiruni (c 1050) in his book Tariq alHind states that the Abbasid caliph alMamun had an embassy in India and from India a book was brought to Baghdad which was translated into Arabic as Sindhind It is generally presumed that Sindhind is none other than Brahmaguptas BrahmasphutasiddhantaAlthough Brahmagupta was familiar with the works of astronomers following the tradition of Aryabhatiya, it is not known if he was familiar with the work of Bhaskara I, a contemporary Brahmagupta had a plethora of criticism directed towards the work of rival astronomers, and in his Brahmasphutasiddhanta is found one of the earliest attested schisms among Indian mathematicians The division was primarily about the application of mathematics to the physical world, rather than about the mathematics itself In Brahmaguptas case, the disagreements stemmed largely from the choice of astronomical parameters and theoriesCritiques of rival theories appear throughout the first ten astronomical chapters and the eleventh chapter is entirely devoted to criticism of these theories, although no criticisms appear in the twelfth and eighteenth chapters

Dwaram Bap Reddy is a scientist and administrator who served at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Bap Reddy was among the earliest Indian Reddys to come to United States and arrived in 1946 He received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, United States in 1950 He served from 1978 to 1982 as the Deputy Regional Representative (Director of FAO with Diplomatic status level) of Asia and Pacific for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAO), the primary world wide nongovernmental organization responsible for food and agricultural issues He served as Acting Assistant DirectorGeneral and Regional Representative (ranked as a Senior National Official equivalent to Acting Deputy Minister, whose equivalent India post is Acting Minister of State of Agriculture with same privileges and immunities accorded to diplomatic envoys in accordance with international law) of Asia and Pacific for FAO in 1980 He was FAO Representative (Director of FAO with rank same as of ConsulGeneral and rank also that of Level 5 of the Washington Executive Schedule) in Indonesia from 1982 to 1986 and also FAO Representative (with the same privileges and immunities accorded to all UN agencies heads) in Nepal in 1987 He served in Diplomatic Status level position for ten years During his service he met various dignitaries, leaders and heads of government Prior to serving with the FAO, he was an active researcher with more than 200 papers and articles to his credit He was directly involved in the establishment of the plant protection counters at Indian ports of entry, a vital element in protecting Indias food supply In 1964 he was appointed by the Government of India to a Ministerial level Committee on the Harmful Effects of Pesticides The Committee was headed by MS Thacker, a Member of the Planning Commission Apart from making many useful recommendations, the Committee advocated the introduction of National Pesticide Legislation
During the Eleventh Session of the Asia and Pacific Plant Protection Commission which has a membership of 24 countries, for which he was the Executive Secretary, the member nations paid a tribute to his contributions; to quote: Dr Reddy has been a driving force in plant protection throughout the Region For extended periods he has carried out extensively and efficiently a wide range of activities,with little permanent assistance In so as this Committee is concerned he has effectively organized six of the biennial meetings of the Committee as well as numerous projects on plant protection in the Region have received his continuing attention Members of the Committee join in thanking Dr Reddy for being the enthusiast who placed Plant Protection in South East Asia and the Pacific Region in a position where it is now receiving due considerationnvited by The Royal Society of London to deliver a Special Lecture on Food Production(1965)In his honor, the Plant Protection Association of India has instituted a national award, the Dr D Bap Reddy National Award for Integrated pest management, which is awarded annually to entomologists

Dronamraju Krishna Rao (born January 14, 1937) is an Indianborn geneticist and president of the Foundation for Genetic Research in Houston, Texas He was born in Pithapuram, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India One focus of his work has been the research of J B S HaldaneDronamraju went to MR College in Vizianagaram, Andhra University to study botany and earned a bachelors degree in 1955 He received a masters degree from Agra University in 1957; he studied plant breeding and genetics When JBS Haldane moved to India in 1957, it gave Dronamraju an opportunity to pursue biological and genetic research After finishing an MSc, he wrote to Haldane for an opportunity to pursue research career under his direction at the Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta
Early in his research career, he discovered the first case of a gene on the human Y chromosome and published a paper in 1960 It was also part of his PhD thesis at the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta Dronamrajus research with Haldane at the Indian Statistical Institute included many areasDronamrajus research covers the visits of several species of lepidoptera to different colored flowers of Lantana camara reported the discovery of a speciesspecific pattern of color preference behavior by pollinating insectsHe did research in human genetics in India In 1966, Dronamraju completed his PhD from the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta He studied under J B S Haldane The topic of his doctoral thesis was Genetic Studies of the Andhra Pradesh population Dronamrajus early research in human genetics (and the independent work of LD Saghvi at the Tata Cancer Center in Mumbai) eventually led to the foundation of the Indian Society of Human Genetics

Eluvathingal Devassy Jemmis (born October 31, 1951) is a Professor of theoretical chemistry at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India He was also the Director of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram (IISERTVM) His primary area of research is applied theoretical chemistry with emphasis on structure, bonding and reactivity, across the periodic table of the elements Apart from many of his contributions to applied theoretical chemistry, an equivalent of the structural chemistry of carbon, as exemplified by the Huckel 4n+2 Rule, benzenoid aromatics and graphite, and tetrahedral carbon and diamond, is brought in the structural chemistry of boron by the Jemmis mno rules which relates polyhedral and macropolyhedral boranes to allotropes of boron and boronrich solids He has been awarded Padma Shri in Science and Engineering category (year 2014) by the Government of India
Jemmis is engaged in the study of structure and reactivity of molecules, clusters and solids using theoretical methods A constant attempt is made by his group to find common threads between problems of different areas, viz between organic and organometallic chemistry; amongst the chemistry of various main group elements; between polymorphs of elements and their compounds; etc His research group not only gets numbers as an answer to a problem, but also tries to find out why the numbers turn out the way they do, based on overlap of orbitals, perturbation theory and symmetry, and devise transferable models Significant results have been obtained in understanding the reactions of transition metal organometallics, week Hbond, electronic structure of threedimensional aromatic compounds, polyhedral boranes, carboranes, silaboranes, electron counting rules for polycondensation, and structure of boron allotropes The latter involved an extension of the Wades Rules for polyhedral boranes to macropolyhedral boranes and the Huckel 4n+2 Rule to three dimensions The Jemmis mno rules for polyhedral boranes have found a place in textbooks and are being taught in Inorganic Chemistry Courses in leading educational institutions around the world Just as the basic tenets of the structural chemistry of carbon has stood the test of time, and led to major developments in carbon, the edifice of the structural chemistry expounded by Jemmis has already begun to do so for boron Several of his predictions have been proved experimentally He has mentored 20 PhD students and several postdoctoral and students and research associates, and published about 200 research articles

G Madhavan Nair (born October 31, 1943) is the former Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation and Secretary to the Department of Space, Government of India since September 2003 He is also the Chairman, Space Commission and acts as the Chairman of Governing Body of the Antrix Corporation, Bangalore Madhavan Nair was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, Indias second highest civilian honour, on January 26, 2009He also served as the Chairman, Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Technology Patna until he stepped down voluntarily due to his alleged involvement in AntrixDevas deal
Nair was born at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India in an Middle Class Nair Family He also studied as a youth in Kanyakumari District He graduated with a BSc in Engineering (1966) from College of Engineering, Trivandrum, of the University of Kerala with specialization in Electronics & Communication Engineering After his graduation, Nair attended a training program at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) Training School, Mumbai
Nair is a leading technologist in the field of rocket systems and has made significant contribution to the development of multistage satellite launch vehicles, achieving selfreliance in independent access to space using indigenous technologies Nair and his team have advanced their work in the face of several challenges in the regime of technology denials by adopting several innovations and novel techniques to realise world class launch vehicle systems India today has a pride of place amongst the spacefaring nations in launch vehicle technology Specifically, as Project Director, he led the development of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) which has since become the workhorse for launching mainly Indian remote sensing satellites
As Director of ISROs largest R & D Centre, the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, he also saw Indias Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) successfully come to fruition Further, as Director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre of ISRO, he played a central role in the design and development of the crucial cryogenic engine for GSLV

Gautam Radhakrishna Desiraju (born August 21, 1952) is an Indian chemist who works in the Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore He works in the area of structural chemistry and crystal engineering Desiraju has played a major role in the development of crystal engineering for nearly three decades He, among others, has been responsible in recent times for the acceptance of the theme of weak hydrogen bonding in structural and supramolecular chemistry His books on crystal engineering (1989) and on the weak hydrogen bond in structural chemistry and biology (1999) are especially notable He has coauthored a textbook in crystal engineering (2011) He is one of the most highly cited Indian chemists and has been recognised by a number of awards such as the Alexander von Humboldt Forschungspreis and the TWAS award in Chemistry He was elected President of the International Union of Crystallography for the triennium 20112014
Gautam Desiraju was born 21 August 1952 in Chennai, India, formerly Madras Desiraju obtained his BSc (1972) from St Xaviers College, Bombay and PhD (1976) from University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign where he worked under the supervision of David Y Curtin and Iain C Paul He worked between 1976 and 1978 in the Research Laboratories of Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, NY From 1978 to 1979 he was a research fellow in the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore He joined the University of Hyderabad in 1979 as a lecturer and was promoted as reader in 1984 and professor in 1990 He spent a year (1988

Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan (also known as E C G Sudarshan; born 16 September 1931) is an Indian theoretical physicist and a professor at the University of Texas Sudarshan has been credited with numerous contributions to the field of theoretical Physics including Optical coherence, SudarshanGlauber representation, VA theory, Tachyons, Quantum Zeno effect, Open quantum system, Spinstatistics theorem, noninvariance groups, positive maps of density matrices, quantum computation among others His contributions include also relations between east and west, philosophy and religion
George Sudarshan was born in a Syrian Christian family in Pallam, Kottayam district, Kerala, India Despite being raised in a Christian family, he later left the religion and called himself a VedantinHe mentions disagreements with the Churchs view on God and lack of spiritual experience as reasons why he left the ChurchHe studied at CMS College Kottayam, and graduated with honors from the Madras Christian College in 1951 He obtained his masters degree at the University of Madras in 1952 He moved to Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and worked there for a brief period with Homi Bhabha as well as others Subsequently, he moved to University of Rochester in New York to work under Robert Marshak as a graduate student In 1958, he received his PhD degree from the University of Rochester At this point he moved to Harvard University to join Julian Schwinger as a postdoctoral fellow

Ravi Veeraraghavan Gomatam (born 1950, in Chennai, India) is the Director of Bhaktivedanta Institute (Berkeley and Mumbai) and the newly formed Institute of Semantic Information Sciences and Technology (Berkeley and Mumbai) He is also Adjunct Professor at Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani, Rajasthan, India Gomatam is one of the pioneers in the field of consciousness studies, which is an emerging interdisciplinary scientific field He organized the First International Conference on the Study of Consciousness within Science in January 1990 in San Francisco The speakers at the 2day conference included two Nobel Laureates (Sir John Eccles and George Wald) as well as twelve other distinguished researchers in the field (including Henry Stapp, John Searle, ECG Sudarshan, Karl H Pribram, Herbert Frohlich)Subsequently, Gomatam conceived and launched the worlds first MS/PhD programs in consciousness studies, in collaboration with the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani (one of Indias foremost technological universities) The program was inaugurated in 1997 by Charles Hard Townes, Nobel Laureate in physics (1964) and recipient of Templeton Prize (2005) Gomatam also teaches graduate students in this program Graduates of this program have gone on to do further studies at distinguished institutions, including Harvard, Leeds and Utrecht universities Consciousness Studies is a developing, interdisciplinary scientific field, which Gomatam has particularly reconceived in a novel, original fashion, as a new way of studying matter Gomatams own field of research is foundations of quantum mechanics, wherein he is introducing a few new ideas, including those of Objective, Semantic Information and a notion of Relational Properties that is different from that of Rovelli and others His new ideas have received notice for their potential He has related research interests in semantic computation, systems sciences, artificial intelligence, philosophy of science and philosophy of language