Harish-Chandra Research Institute

Last updated

Harish-Chandra Research Institute
Former name
Mehta Research Institute
TypeResearch Institute
Established1975 (1975) [1]
Academic affiliations
 Homi Bhabha National Institute
Director Pinaki Majumdar [2] [3]
Academic staff
30+ [1]
Administrative staff
30+
80 [1]
Other students
25
Location
Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh
,
211019
,
India
Campus66 acres (27 ha)
Website www.hri.res.in

The Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI) is an institution dedicated to research in mathematics and theoretical physics, located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh in India. [4] Established in 1975, HRI offers masters and doctoral program in affiliation with the Homi Bhabha National Institute.

Contents

HRI has a residential campus in Jhusi town in Prayagraj on the banks of the river Ganga. The institute has over 30 faculty, 50 doctoral students and 25 post-doctoral visiting research fellows and scientists. HRI is funded by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) of the Government of India.

History

The institute was founded as the Mehta Research Institute of Mathematics and Mathematical Physics in 1975, with an endowment from the B.S. Mehta Trust, Calcutta. The institute was initially managed by Badri Nath Prasad and following his death in January 1966 by S.R. Sinha, both from the Allahabad University. The first official director of the institute was Prabhu Lal Bhatnagar in 1975 when it became truly operational. He was followed by S.R. Sinha again. [5]

On 29 November 1975 B. Devadas Acharya joined the Mehta Research Institute (MRI) as its first postdoctoral fellow and on 1 January 1980 was appointed as the first assistant professor of mathematics at MRI. During his research work between 1975 and 1984, he gave many talks on graph theory and its applications in computing. In one of his talks to international audiences, he envisioned a computing engine based on matrices which would be much more powerful.[ citation needed ]

Sharadchandra Shankar Shrikhande joined the institute as its director in January 1983. The institute was facing financial difficulties, and Shrikhande sought DAE support for the institute. Following the recommendations of the DAE review committee, the Government of Uttar Pradesh committed to provide a campus for HRI, while the DAE committed to provide full funding for all operational expenses. [5]

In January 1990, the institute was granted about 66 acres (270,000 m2) in Jhusi town of Prayagraj district and H.S. Mani took over as Director. The institute moved to its present campus in 1996. Since then, the institute has grown in facilities, scope of research as well as number of faculty and students.[ citation needed ]

In October 2000, the institute was renamed in honour of renowned Indian mathematician Harish-Chandra.

Ravi S. Kulkarni succeeded Mani as the director in August 2001 and was followed by Amitava Raychaudhuri in July 2005. Jayanta Kumar Bhattacharjee followed in May 2011. [1]

Research activities

The HRI Mathematics research group has four teams with focus on Algebra, Analysis, Geometry & Topology and Number Theory. [6] The HRI Physics research group consists of teams focused on Astrophysics, Condensed Matter Physics, High Energy Physics, String Theory and Quantum Information & Computation. [7] Prominent HRI faculty members in the area of String Theory include Ashoke Sen and Rajesh Gopakumar. [8] HRI faculty member in the area of Quantum Information and Computation includes Arun K. Pati, Aditi Sen De and Ujjawal Sen.

Besides its research, the Mathematics group is known for conducting the annual Summer Programme in Mathematics (SPIM), a highly popular scheme that invites interested undergraduates from across India for an intensive month-long immersive program in advanced mathematics. [9] [10] The Physics group has also started Visiting Students Program (VSP) in Physics to motivate students for higher studies in Physics. [11] [12]

Awards

HRI faculty members have received numerous research awards. The following faculty members of the institute have received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology:

Ashoke Sen received the prestigious Infosys Prize in 2009 [1] and Fundamental Physics Prize in July 2012. [13] [14] He was also awarded the prestigious civilian award Padma Bhushan by President of India in April 2013. Rajesh Gopakumar received the International Centre for Theoretical Physics Prize in 2006.

Related Research Articles

Harish-Chandra Mehrotra FRS was an Indian-American mathematician and physicist who did fundamental work in representation theory, especially harmonic analysis on semisimple Lie groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashoke Sen</span> Indian physicist (born 1956)

Ashoke Sen FRS is an Indian theoretical physicist and distinguished professor at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS), Bangalore. A former distinguished professor at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad, He is also an honorary fellow in National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), Bhubaneswar, India he is also a Morningstar Visiting professor at MIT and a distinguished professor at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study. His main area of work is string theory. He was among the first recipients of the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics "for opening the path to the realization that all string theories are different limits of the same underlying theory".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cumrun Vafa</span> Iranian theoretical physicist

Cumrun Vafa is an Iranian-American theoretical physicist and the Hollis Professor of Mathematicks and Natural Philosophy at Harvard University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shiraz Minwalla</span> Indian physicist

Shiraz Naval Minwalla is an Indian theoretical physicist and string theorist. He is a faculty member in the Department of Theoretical Physics at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. Prior to his present position, Minwalla was a Harvard Junior Fellow and subsequently an assistant professor at Harvard University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homi Bhabha National Institute</span> Indian deemed university

The Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI) is an Indian deemed university established by the Department of Atomic Energy, which unifies academic programmes of several of its constituent institutions. Deemed universities in India have been divided in three categories by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and HBNI has been placed in category 'A', highest of the three categories. Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai and its Constituent Units are the institutions of excellence as per section 4(b) of "The Central Education Institutions Act, 2006".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department of Atomic Energy</span> Department with headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) is an Indian government department with headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. DAE was established in 1954 with Jawaharlal Nehru as its first minister and Homi Bhabha as its secretary.

Jhusi or Jhunsi is a town in Prayagraj district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It was formerly called Pratishthan Pur or Puri.

Prabhu Lal Bhatnagar, commonly addressed as P. L. Bhatnagar, was an Indian mathematician known for his contribution to the Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook operator used in Lattice Boltzmann methods (LBM).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Institute of Science Education and Research</span> Higher education institution in Bhubaneswar, India

The National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) is a public research institute in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India, under the umbrella of the Indian Department of Atomic Energy. The institute is affiliated with Homi Bhabha National Institute. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, laid the foundation stone on August 28, 2006. Government of India earmarked an initial outlay of ₹823.19 crore (US$100 million) during the first seven years of the project, starting in September 2007. It was ranked second in the country by the Nature Index 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prayagraj</span> Metropolis in Uttar Pradesh, India

Prayagraj, also known as Allahabad or Illahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Prayagraj district, the most populous district in the state and 13th most populous district in India and the Prayagraj division. The city is the judicial capital of Uttar Pradesh with the Allahabad High Court being the highest judicial body in the state. As of 2011, Prayagraj is the seventh most populous city in the state, thirteenth in Northern India and thirty-sixth in India, with an estimated population of 1.53 million in the city. In 2011, it was ranked the world's 40th fastest-growing city. The city, in 2016, was also ranked the third most liveable urban agglomeration in the state and sixteenth in the country. Hindi is the most widely spoken language in the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rajesh Gopakumar</span> Indian physicist

Rajesh Gopakumar is an Indian theoretical physicist and the director of the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS-TIFR) in Bangalore, India. He was previously a professor at Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI) in Prayagraj, India. He is known for his work on topological string theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amitava Raychaudhuri</span> Indian theoretical particle physicist

Amitava Raychaudhuri is an Indian theoretical particle physicist. He is Professor Emeritus at the Physics Department of the Science College, University of Calcutta where he earlier held the Sir Tarak Nath Palit Chair Professorship. He is the nephew of another renowned Indian physicist, Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri.

Biswarup Mukhopadhyaya is an Indian theoretical high energy physicist and a senior professor at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata. Known for his research on High energy colliders, Higgs bosons, neutrinos, Mukhopadhyaya is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India. 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 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinaki Majumdar</span>

Pinaki Majumdar is an Indian condensed matter physicist and the director of the Harish-Chandra Research Institute. Known for his research on correlated quantum systems, Majumdar is a recipient of the Global Indus Technovator Award of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 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 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aditi Sen De</span> Indian physicist

Aditi Sen De is an Indian scientist, a professor in quantum information and computation group at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad. She was born on 1st October 1974 in Kolkata, India. She is known for her research on quantum information and computation, quantum communication including quantum cryptography, quantum optics and many-body physics. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded her the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology for her contributions to physical sciences in 2018. She is the first female physicist to be given this honour. In 2022, she was elected as a member of Indian Academy of Sciences and Indian National Science Academy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University College of Science, Technology and Agriculture</span> Science College, Kolkata, West Bengal

The University College of Science, Technology and Agriculture are two of five main campuses of the University of Calcutta (CU). The college served as the cradle of Indian Sciences by winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 and many fellowships of the Royal Society London.

Sumathi Rao is an Indian theoretical physicist and professor at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Bengaluru, working in the field of condensed matter physics. She is a former member of women in physics promotion of International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) from 2000 to 2008.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Academic Report 2010-2011" (PDF). Harish-Chandra Research Institute. Retrieved 12 June 2012.[ permanent dead link ]
  2. ↑ "Recent News". Harish-Chandra Research Institute. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
  3. ↑ "Physics Faculty". Harish-Chandra Research Institute. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
  4. ↑ "Home". Harish-Chandra Research Institute. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
  5. 1 2 "History". Harish-Chandra Research Institute. Archived from the original on 18 February 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
  6. ↑ "Mathematics Research at HRI". Harish-Chandra Research Institute. Archived from the original on 28 August 2013. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
  7. ↑ "Physics Research at HRI". Harish-Chandra Research Institute. Archived from the original on 28 August 2013. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
  8. ↑ "Stringing together the ultimate law". The Hindu . 7 January 2001. Archived from the original on 13 September 2012. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
  9. ↑ "Summer Programme in Mathematics". Harish-Chandra Research Institute. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
  10. ↑ "Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI) - Summer Programme in Mathematics". Ideology Speaks. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
  11. ↑ "The Graduate Program in Physics at HRI". Harish-Chandra Research Institute. Archived from the original on 28 August 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
  12. ↑ "Summer Project/Internship 2013 at HRI Allahabad". UpdateMoi. Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
  13. ↑ "FPP". Archived from the original on 3 August 2012. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  14. ↑ Allahabad physicist Ashoke Sen wins prize, becomes crorepati overnight. Indiatvnews.com (1 August 2012). Retrieved on 6 December 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.