Jayant Narlikar | |
|---|---|
 Narlikar pictured in 2007 | |
| Born | (1938-07-19)19 July 1938 |
| Died | 20 May 2025(2025-05-20) (aged 86) Pune, Maharashtra, India |
| Alma mater | Banaras Hindu University Cambridge University |
| Known for | Quasi-steady state cosmology Hoyle–Narlikar theory of gravity |
| Spouse | Mangala Narlikar |
| Children | 3 |
| Awards |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics, astronomy |
| Institutions | Cambridge University TIFR IUCAA |
| Doctoral advisor | Fred Hoyle |
| Doctoral students | Thanu Padmanabhan |
Jayant Vishnu NarlikarFNA,FASc,FTWAS (19 July 1938 – 20 May 2025) was an Indianastrophysicist who performed research onalternative cosmology. He was also an author who wrotetextbooks on cosmology,popular science books, andscience fiction novels and short stories.
Narlikar studied atBanaras Hindu University andCambridge University, where he obtained his PhD in 1963 working withFred Hoyle. After postdoctoral work in Cambridge, in 1972 he was appointed a professor at theTata Institute of Fundamental Research. In 1988, he became the first director of theInter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA).[1]
Narlikar was born inKolhapur, India, on 19 July 1938, into an academic family. His father,Vishnu Vasudev Narlikar, was a mathematician and theoretical physicist who was a professor and head of department atBanaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi. His mother,Sumati Narlikar, was a scholar ofSanskrit.[citation needed] His maternal uncle,V. S. Huzurbazar, was a statistician.[2]
Narlikar went to school at Central Hindu College (nowCentral Hindu Boys School) inVaranasi. He then studied at BHU, where he received aBachelor of Science degree in 1957. He continued his education atCambridge University, where he was a member ofFitzwilliam College (as his father had been).[3] He completed themathematical tripos in 1959, for which he was awarded aBachelor of Arts degree in mathematics and wasSenior Wrangler.[4] This degree was converted to anOxbridge MA in 1964, without further study.
Narlikar began his research career as adoctoral student intheoretical cosmology, under the guidance ofFred Hoyle in Cambridge. He was awarded aDoctor of Philosophy degree in 1963. He was then apostdoctoral fellow atKing's College in Cambridge. In 1966, Hoyle established the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy in Cambridge; Narlikar was a founding member of the institute,[citation needed] while remaining a fellow at King's College.
A dispute with university leadership led Hoyle to resign in 1972,[5] and it was decided that his institute would merge into theInstitute of Astronomy, Cambridge. Narlikar left Cambridge that year, returning to India as a professor at theTata Institute of Fundamental Research inMumbai, where he led itstheoretical astrophysics group. In 1981, Narlikar became a founding member of theWorld Cultural Council.[6] In 1988, he was appointed the founding director of theInter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune. From 1994–1997, he was the president of theInternational Astronomical Union commission for cosmology.[citation needed] TheNational Council of Educational Research and Training appointed Narlikar as chairperson of its committee responsible for developing textbooks in science and mathematics.[7]
Narlikar publicly criticisedpseudoscience, includingastrology, arguing instead forevidence-based thinking.[8]
Narlikar's research involvedMach's principle,quantum cosmology, andaction-at-a-distance physics. Dissatisfied with the standardBig Bang model of cosmology, Narilkar investigated alternative models, a field known asnon-standard cosmology.[9]
WithFred Hoyle, he proposed aconformal gravity model now known asHoyle–Narlikar theory, which attempted to produce analternative theory of gravity that is consistent withMach's principle.[8] It proposes that the inertial mass of a particle is a function of the masses of all other particles, multiplied by a coupling constant, which is a function ofcosmic time.[citation needed] The theory was not accepted by mainstream cosmology.[8]
Narlikar collaborated with other critics of Big Bang cosmology, includingHalton Arp,Geoffrey Burbidge, Hoyle andChandra Wickramasinghe.[10] In 1993, Hoyle, Burbidge and Narlikar proposed thequasi-steady state cosmological model.[11] That model was incompatible with theaccelerating expansion of the Universe, discovered in 1997, so Narilkar proposed another model in 2002.[12] Thesealternative cosmology models did not receive widespread support.
Narlikar worked with Wickramasinghe, Hoyle and other collaborators on ahigh-altitude balloon flight that collected samples of microorganisms from thestratosphere, at altitudes up to 41 km.[13][14]
Narlikar marriedMangala Narlikar (née Rajwade), a mathematics researcher and professor. The couple had three daughters:Geeta, a biomedical researcher at theUniversity of California, San Francisco, Girija and Leelavati who both work in computer science.[15][16] He was the uncle ofAmrita Narlikar, a social sciences academic at Cambridge University.[citation needed]
His wife, Mangala, died on 17 July 2023.[17] Narlikar died on 20 May 2025, at the age of 87.[18][19]
Narlikar received many national and international awards and honorary doctorates. India's second-highest civilian honour,Padma Vibhushan, was awarded to him in 2004 for his research work.[20] Prior to this, in 1965, he was conferredPadma Bhushan.[20] He was awarded 'Rashtra Bhushan' in 1981 byFIE Foundation,Ichalkaranji.[21] He receivedMaharashtra Bhushan Award for the year 2010.[22] He was a recipient ofBhatnagar Award, M.P. Birla Award, and thePrix Jules Janssen of theSociété astronomique de France (French Astronomical Society). He was an Associate of theRoyal Astronomical Society of London, and a Fellow of the three Indian National Science Academies and theThird World Academy of Sciences. Apart from his scientific research, Narlikar was well known as a communicator of science through his books, articles, and radio and television programmes. For these efforts, he was honoured in 1996 byUNESCO with theKalinga Prize.[23] He was featured onCarl Sagan's TV showCosmos: A Personal Voyage in the late 1980s. In 1989, he received theAtmaram Award byCentral Hindi Directorate.[24] He received the Indira Gandhi Award of theIndian National Science Academy in 1990.[25] He also served on the Physical Sciences jury for theInfosys Prize in 2009.[26] In 2014, he received aSahitya Akademi Award for his autobiography in Marathi,Chaar Nagarantale Maze Vishwa.[27][28] He presided over the 94thAkhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan held atNashik in January 2021.[29] In 1960, he won theTyson Medal for astronomy.[citation needed] During his doctoral studies at Cambridge, he won theSmith's Prize in 1962.[citation needed] He was awarded posthumously theVigyan Ratna Award in 2025 by the Government of India for his contribution to Physics.[30]
Besides scientific papers and books and popular science literature, Narlikar wrote science fiction, novels, and short stories in English,Hindi, andMarathi. He was also the consultant for the Science and Mathematics textbooks of NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training, India).
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