Rahul Pandit

Rahul Pandit (born 22 April 1956) is an Indian condensed matter physicist, a professor of physics and a divisional chair at the Indian Institute of Science. Known for his research on phase transitions and spatiotemporal chaos and turbulence, Pandit is an elected fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and The World Academy of Sciences. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to physical sciences in 2001.[1][note 1]

Rahul Pandit
Born (1956-04-22) 22 April 1956
New Delhi, India
NationalityIndian
Alma mater
Known forStudies on phase transitions and spatiotemporal chaos and turbulence
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Doctoral advisor
  • Michael Wortis

Biography
Indian Institute of Science

Rahul Pandit was born on 22 April 1956 in the Indian capital of New Delhi.[2] After early schooling, he did his under-graduate studies as a National Talent Search scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and continued there to earn an MS in physics in 1977. Subsequently, he moved to the US and obtained a second master's degree in physics in 1979 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His doctoral studies under the guidance of Michael Wortis were also at the same institution, to secure a PhD in 1982. After completing his post doctoral studies at Cornell University in 1983, he returned to India to join the Indian Institute of Science as a research associate in 1984.[3]

Pandit has been serving out his career at IISc ever since. He has held several positions at the institute such as those of a research scientist (1985–90), assistant professor (1990–96) and associate professor (1996–2002) till he became a professor in 2002,[4] a position he holds till date along with the chair of the Division of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the institute.[5] In between, he chaired the International Relations Cell of IISc and the Theoretical Sciences Unit of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) during 2002–08 and served as a member of the Condensed Matter Theory Unit of JNCASR until 2012. A three-year stint as an adjunct professor at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research during 2009–12 was another position he has held. His current responsibilities include the MSIL Chair Professorship of IISc and Honorary Professorship of JNCASR. He has also been a visiting professor at various institutions such as Ohio State University, University of Missouri, Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Côte d'Azur Observatory and École Normale Supérieure.[2]

Legacy
Wetting of different fluids: A shows a fluid with very little wetting, while C shows a fluid with more wetting. A has a large contact angle, and C has a small contact angle

Pandit has been focusing his work on the problems related to phase transitions, statistical mechanics and non-linear dynamics,[6] Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation and Complex-Ginzburg-Landau equations.[7] His contributions reportedly include theoretical elucidation of multilayer-adsorption and wetting phenomena on attractive substrates and the scaling properties of quasiperiodic Schroedinger operators.[3] He is known to have developed a a theory of hysteresis loops in model spin systems[8] and a cardiac arrhythmias model and his studies have assisted in a wider understanding of low-amplitude defibrillation schemes and cardiac arrhythmias. Glass formation in soft condensed matter systems,[9] interacting bosons, colossal magnetoresistance manganites and complex fluids have been some of his other interests.[7] His studies have been documented by way of a number of articles[10][11][note 2] and the online article repository of the Indian Academy of Sciences has listed 79 of them.[12] Besides, he has mentored 15 research scholars in their doctoral studies.[3]

Pandit was involved, in the capacity of the secretary of the organizing committee, in the organization of STATPHYS 22 the international statistical physics conference of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics held at IISc campus in 2004.[13] He is the secretary of the C3 Commission on Statistical Physics of the International Union for Pure and Applied Physics[14] and has held the chair of IUPAP national committee in India. He is a former divisional associate editor of Physical Review Letters journal (2004–10) and a former member of the editorial advisory board of Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications of Elsevier (2001–07).[2] He is a member of the divisional committee of the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) program of the Department of Science and Technology[15] and sits in the editorial board of Cambridge IISc Series, a publishing collaboration between the Indian Institute of Science and Cambridge University Press India.[16] He has delivered invited speeches at various conferences including the International Symposium on Fluid Days held in December 2007–January 2008.[17]

Awards and honors

Pandit, who was a National Talent Search scholar during his early college days (1972–77), stood first in his Physics for his graduate examination in 1977.[2] While at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he held the Exxon Fellowship and on his return to India, he was a Young Associate of the Indian Academy of Sciences. He received the Young Scientist Medal of the Indian National Science Academy in 1988.[18] The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards in 2001.[19] He was selected for the Meghnad Saha Award by the University Grants Commission in 2004 and the Indian Institute of Science chose him for the Professor Rustom Choksi Award.[20] His alma mater, IIT Delhi selected him as the Distinguished Alumunus in 2010.[21]

Pandit, a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma Xi, was elected as a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1996.[22] A decade later, the Indian National Science Academy elected him as their fellow[23] and he became an elected fellow of The World Academy of Sciences in 2015.[24] American Physical Society awarded him Outstanding Referee citation to him in 2012 for his work on Physical Review and Physical Review Letters journals.[2] The award orations delivered by him include 2007 DAE Raja Ramanna Award Lecture on The mathematical modelling of cardiac arrhythmias of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research.[25] He has also been holding J. C. Bose National Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology since 2007.[2]

Selected bibliography

Books
  • S. Dattagupta, H.R. Krishnamurthy, R. Pandit, T.V. Ramakrishnan, D. Sen (Editors) (2005). Proceedings of the 22nd IUPAP International Conference on Statistical Physics (STATPHYS 22). International Union of Pure and Applied Physics.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)

Chapters
  • M Lal; R A Mashelkar, B D Kulkarni, V M Naik (Editors); Aswin Pande, Rahul Pandit (chapter authors) (1 October 1999). "Spatiotemporal Chaos in a Model or Co Oxidation on Pt(110)". Structure and Dynamics of Materials in the Mesoscopic Domain. World Scientific. pp. 94–. ISBN 978-1-78326-350-9.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)

Articles

See also

Notes
  1. Long link - please select award year to see details
  2. Please see Selected bibliography section

References
  1. "View Bhatnagar Awardees". Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. 11 November 2017. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
  2. "Biographical Information" (PDF). Indian Insttute of Science. 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  3. "Indian fellow". Indian National Science Academy. 17 October 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  4. "Profile on IISc". Indian Insttute of Science. 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  5. "Divisional Chairs". Indian Insttute of Science. 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  6. Asoke Nath Mitra (2009). India in the World of Physics: Then and Now. Pearson Education India. pp. 190–. ISBN 978-81-317-1579-6.
  7. "Research Interests". Indian Institute of Science. 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  8. "Brief Profile of the Awardee". Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. 17 October 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  9. "Handbook of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Winners" (PDF). Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. 17 October 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  10. "On ResearchGate". 17 October 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  11. "On Google Scholar". Google Scholar. 17 October 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  12. "Browse by Fellow". Indian Academy of Sciences. 17 October 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  13. "STATPHYS 22". Indian Institute of Physics. 19 October 2017.
  14. "C3-Officers". the International Union for Pure and Applied Physics. 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  15. "INSPIRE divisional chair persons". Department of Science and Technology. 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  16. "Cambridge IISc Series". Cambridge University Press India. 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  17. Connie Malamed (October 2011). Visual Language for Designers: Principles for Creating Graphics that People Understand. Rockport Publishers. pp. 97–. ISBN 978-1-59253-741-9.
  18. "INSA Young Scientists Medal". Indian National Science Academy. 17 October 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  19. "CSIR list of Awardees". Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. 2017.
  20. "Professor Rustom Choksi Award". Indian Institute of Science. 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  21. "Distinguished Alumni Award" (PDF). IIT Delhi. 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  22. "Fellow profile". Indian Academy of Sciences. 2017.
  23. "INSA Year Book 2016" (PDF). Indian National Science Academy. 2017.
  24. "TWAS fellow". The World Academy of Sciences. 17 October 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  25. "Raja Ramanna Award Lecture". Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
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