Rahul Pandit | |
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| Born | (1956-04-22)22 April 1956 (age 68) New Delhi, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
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| Known for | Studies onphase transitions and spatiotemporalchaos and turbulence |
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Rahul Pandit (born 22 April 1956) is an Indian condensed matter physicist, a professor of physics and a divisional chair at theIndian Institute of Science. Known for his research onphase transitions andspatiotemporalchaos and turbulence, Pandit is an elected fellow of theIndian Academy of Sciences,Indian National Science Academy andThe World Academy of Sciences. TheCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him theShanti 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 was born on 22 April 1956 in the Indian capital ofNew Delhi.[2] After early schooling, he did his under-graduate studies as aNational Talent Search scholar at theIndian 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 theUniversity 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 atCornell University in 1983, he returned to India to join theIndian 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) until he became a professor in 2002,[4] a position he holds until 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 ofJawaharlal 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 ofTata 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 asOhio State University,University of Missouri,Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics,Côte d'Azur Observatory andÉcole Normale Supérieure.[2]
Pandit has been focusing his work on the problems related tophase transitions,statistical mechanics andnon-linear dynamics,[6]Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation and Complex-Ginzburg-Landau equations.[7] His contributions reportedly include theoretical elucidation ofmultilayer-adsorption and wetting phenomena on attractive substrates and the scaling properties ofquasiperiodicSchroedinger operators.[3] He is known to have developed aa theory of hysteresis loops in model spin systems[8] and acardiac arrhythmias model and his studies have assisted in a wider understanding of low-amplitudedefibrillation schemes andcardiac 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 ofSTATPHYS 22 the international statistical physics conference of theInternational Union of Pure and Applied Physics held at the IISc campus in 2004.[13] He is the secretary of theC3 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 ofPhysical Review Letters journal (2004–10) and a former member of the editorial advisory board ofPhysica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications ofElsevier (2001–07).[2] He is a member of the divisional committee of theInnovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) program of theDepartment of Science and Technology[15] and sits on the editorial board ofCambridge IISc Series, a publishing collaboration between the Indian Institute of Science andCambridge University Press India.[16] He has delivered invited speeches at various conferences including theInternational Symposium on Fluid Days held in December 2007–January 2008.[17]
Pandit, who was aNational Talent Search scholar during his early college days (1972–77), stood first in his Physics for his graduate examination in 1977.[2] While at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he held the Exxon Fellowship and on his return to India, he was a Young Associate of theIndian Academy of Sciences. He received the Young Scientist Medal of theIndian National Science Academy in 1988.[18] The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him theShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards in 2001.[19] He was selected for the Meghnad Saha Award by theUniversity 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 ofPhi Kappa Phi andSigma 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 ofThe World Academy of Sciences in 2015.[24]American Physical Society awarded him Outstanding Referee citation to him in 2012 for his work onPhysical Review andPhysical Review Letters journals.[2] The award orations delivered by him include 2007DAE Raja Ramanna Award Lecture onThe 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]
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