Ramanath Cowsik | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1940 (age 84–85) Nagpur, India |
| Occupation | Astrophysicist |
| Years active | Since 1961 |
| Employer | Washington University in St. Louis |
| Known for | Astroparticle physics |
| Spouse | Sudha |
| Children | Siddhartha Aditya |
| Awards | Padma Shri Shri Hari Om PreritVikram Sarabhai Award Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize NASA Public Service Group Achievement Award INSAVainu Bappu Memorial Medal M. P. Birla Award TWAS Prize ISCAS. N. Bose Birth Centenary Award |
| Scientific career | |
| Doctoral students | Subir Sarkar |
| Website | Profile |
Ramanath Cowsik is an Indian astrophysicist[1][2] and the James S. McDonnell Professor of Space Sciences atWashington University in St. Louis.[3] He is considered by many as the father ofastroparticle physics.[3][4] A recipient of theShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize,[5] Cowsik was honored by theGovernment of India, in 2002, with the fourth highestIndian civilian award ofPadma Shri[6]
Ramanath Cowsik was born in 1940[1] inNagpur,[7] in the Western Indian state ofMaharashtra.[4] He did his schooling inKarnataka which he completed before turning 14 and graduated fromMysore University in 1958,[1] with physics, chemistry and biology as the optional subjects, at the age of 17.[4][7] He continued his master's studies at the Karnatak university inDharwar,[8] to secure the degree in physics in 1960, aged 19[4] and joined the Atomic Energy Establishment Training School,[9] present dayHomi Bhabha National Institute,Trombay where he did a post graduate course.[1][7] He started his career as a member of faculty of theTata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR)[2] in 1961, simultaneously pursuing his doctoral studies to secure a PhD fromBombay University in 1968,[8] researching under the guidance of ProfessorYash Pal.[1][2] He taught at TIFR for over forty years, growing over the years as a fellow, a reader, an associate professor, a professor, a senior professor,[7] and reaching the status of a distinguished professor of the institute.[1][2] He also worked as the Director of theIndian Institute of Astrophysics[10] on deputation from TIFR, during the period from 1992 to 2003,[1] where he has been a Vainu Bappu Distinguished Professor.[7] On invitation fromP. Buford Price, Cowsik also worked as an assistant professor at theUniversity of California, Berkeley from 1970 to 1973.[4]
In December 2002, he moved toWashington University in St. Louis and serves at the McDonnell Centre for the Space Sciences[11] as the Professor of Physics and Director.[2][8][12] He is the James S. McDonnell Professor of Space Sciences[13] of the institute since 2013.[1][2][4] A former research fellow of theUniversity of Chicago, Cowsik is a visiting professor at theUniversity of California and a visiting fellow at theMax Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics, Munich. He has also served as a member of the governing council of theCommission on Cosmic Rays of theInternational Union of Pure and Applied Physics.[7] He is a member of theInternational Society for Science and Religion and sits in the board of advisors ofForgiveness Research, a community of forgiveness.[14]
Cowsik, who is known to be proficient in languages such as Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Sanskrit, English, German and French,[4] is married to Sudha, a research instructor and a doctoral degree (PhD) holder, associated with the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics of the Washington University in St. Louis.[15] Cowsik has two sons, Sasha and Aditya, and resides in the city ofSt. Louis.[4]
Ram Cowsik has the attributes I most admire in a scientist. Throughout his entire career, he has thought broadly and creatively about unsolved puzzles at the forefront of physics, saysP. Buford Price, renowned physicist.[4]
Ramanath Cowsik is known for his theories related to theBig Bang origin of the universe. He argued that, post the Big Bang,gravitationally dominant relicts were formed from the particles with finite rest mass, resulting in the formation ofhalos ofdark matter with galaxies embedded within.[1][2][7][17] He postulated that this would limit the sums of masses ofneutrinos,[4] a phenomenon known in the scientific world as theCowsik-McClelland bound.[18] These theories are said to have explained thevelocity dispersion of particles of dark matter and reproduced theluminosity profiles and ratified therotation curves of galaxies.[1]
Cowsik is credited with the invention ofleaky box andnested leaky box models[2][13][19][20] for the observation of optical and infrared wavelength bands ofcosmic rays[2] and employing these models, he is known to have established anobservatory foroptical astronomy in Hanle,Ladakh, at an altitude of 15,000 feet, reported to be the highest observatory in the world.[1][2][17][19] The observatory is controlled remotely from Bangalore and is operational year round.[4] He is involved in experiments related toGrand Unified Theory and attempts toprobe violations of the inverse square law of gravity at sub-millimeter scales. His scientific paper on the role ofneutrinos was included by theAmerican Physical Society and thePhysics Review[21] magazine, in their selection of 1000 most important scientific papers of the century.[1][2][4]
Cowsik has reported contributions towards understandinghighly energetic phenomena in astrophysics such ascosmic ray,pulsar,supernova remnant,gamma ray burst,active galactic nucleus and other similar sources powered by accretion flows.[2][4][7][13][19] His studies cover the diffuse non thermal radiations found all over space as well as radiations fromdiscrete astronomical sources.[2] His experiments are known to be interdisciplinary in nature and bridge the gap between universal phenomena and experimental physics.[2][4] He has conducted extensive research on pre-solar grains ofaluminum oxide found inmeteorites and has devised a methodology to assess the age of the universe from them.[2][7][19]
Ramanath Cowsik is credited with the first detailed calculations on neutrino fluxes generated atmospheric cosmic ray interactions and observations of the same in underground detectors.[19] These findings have been known to have assisted in the discovery of neutrino oscillations atSuper-Kamiokande observatory in Japan.[2][19] He is also known to have made the longesthalf-life measured in the world which related to that ofdouble beta decay of Te-128, as 7.7 x 1024 years.[17][19] He has also conducted studies on finite temperature corrections to theCasimir forces occur at large separations.[2][19] Cowsik has developed a sensitivetorsion balance using which he conducted the first laboratory experiment for the so-calledfifth force.[7] He is involved in the development of a more sensitive torsion balance for probing the violations of theInverse-square law of gravity at millimeter scales,[2][7][13]
Cowsik, who has drawn comparison with the renowned physicist,Enrico Fermi for his achievements in theoretical and experimental physics,[4] has published his experiments and observations in several scientific papers[7] published in peer reviewed journals[22][23][24] andResearchGate, an online repository has listed 193 of them.[23] He has attended several seminars and conferences and has delivered keynote addresses[25] on astrophysics and the relationship between religion and science.[4] He has edited three books,[7] including "Cosmic Pathways", a collection of essays in physics and astrophysics.[26] He has also assisted other scientists in ratifying their experiments by acting as a reference point; his involvement in theOPERA experiment, aCERN, Geneva and theLaboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso,Gran Sasso collaboration was one such instance.[27]
Ramanath Cowsik is an elected Fellow of theIndian National Science Academy,Indian Academy of Sciences,National Academy of Sciences, India,[citation needed]Indian Geophysical Union andThe Academy of Sciences for the Developing World.[1][2][7] He is aForeign Associate of theNational Academy of Sciences, USA,[1][2][7] a life member of theAmerican Physical Society and a member of theInternational Astronomical Union.[1]
Cowsik received the Shri Hari Om PreritVikram Sarabhai Award in 1981, followed byShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in 1984.[1][2][4][7]NASA awarded him the Public Service Group Achievement Award in 1986[2][4] and theIndian National Science Academy awarded him theVainu Bappu Memorial Medal in 1997.[1][7] TheGovernment of India honoured him with the civilian award ofPadma Shri in 2002[4][6][7] and he received the M. P. Birla Award in 2007.[1] In 2009 he was awarded theÓ Ceallaigh Medal by the IUPAP Cosmic Ray Commission.[28] He is also a recipient ofTWAS Prize[2] and theISCAS. N. Bose Birth Centenary Award[7] and has delivered theSir C. V. Raman Memorial Award Lecture (1996)[2] and the Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Award Lecture (2002).[1]
'leaky box' wiki.
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