contacting me | |my CV| |list of publications

 

Contact   Membership     Awards and distinctions     Academic contributions     Books authored    Past students     Present students  

 

Write-up: (i) An one-page write-up as pdf file (or as a doc file), and (iii) an annotated CV (pdf) are available at these links.

A more detailed scientific/personal bio is available in the Chapter 1 of "Gravity and the Quantum" (Eds. J.S. Bagla and S. Engineer), Springer, 2017, book with a collection of articles, brought out on the occasion of my 60th birthday. The pdf file of the chapter is available here .

PADMANABHAN, THANU

Date and Place of Birth: 10 March 1957, Trivandrum, Kerala, India.

Current Position: Distinguished Professor (HAG scale of Govt. of India)

Address: Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, (IUCAA) Post Bag 4, Ganeshkhind, Pune - 411 007, India.

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Telephone: 91-20-25604106/ 25604100 (office); 91-20-25692922/25604408 (home).

Fax: 91-20-25604699; 

Email : paddy@iucaa.in (secure); nabhan@iucaa.in (general)

Education:

Key Visiting Positions Abroad:

Specialization:

Quantum Theory, Gravitation, Cosmology and Structure Formation in the Universe.

Professional Experience:

Various Faculty positions at TIFR, Bombay from 1980 to 1992; moved to IUCAA, Pune in 1992 and was the Dean, Core Academic Programmes during 1997-2015. Currently Distinguished Professor (HAG scale of GoI) at IUCAA, Pune.

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Key Chairmanship/Membership etc.:

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Awards and Distinctions:

Books authored

  1. Padmanabhan, T. : "Gravity, Gauge theories and quantum cosmology", Reidel. (1986) (co-author: J.V. Narlikar).
  2. Padmanabhan, T. : "Structure formation in the Universe", Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (1993).
  3. Padmanabhan, T. : "Cosmology and Astrophysics through Problems", Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (1996).
  4. Padmanabhan, T. : "After the first three minutes -- The story of our universe", Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (1998).
  5. Padmanabhan, T.: "Theoretical Astrophysics - Volume I: Astrophysical processes", Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (2000).
  6. Padmanabhan, T.: "Theoretical Astrophysics - Volume II: Stars and Stellar Systems", Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (2001).
  7. Padmanabhan, T.: "Theoretical Astrophysics - Volume III: Galaxies and Cosmology", Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (2002).
  8. Padmanabhan, T.: "An invitation to Astrophysics", World Scientific, Singapore, (2006).
  9. Padmanabhan, T.: "Quantum Themes: The Charms of the Microworld", World Scientific, Singapore, (2009).
  10. Padmanabhan, T.: "Gravitation: Foundations and Frontiers", Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2010)
  11. Padmanabhan, T.: "Sleeping Beauties in Theoretical Physics", Springer, Heidelberg (2015)
  12. Padmanabhan, T.: "Quantum Field Theory: The Why, What and How", Springer, Heidelberg (2016)
  13. Padmanabhan, T.: "The Dawn of Science: Glimpses from History for the Curious Mind", Springer, Heidelberg (2019) (co-author: Vasanthi Padmanabhan)

Books edited

Padmanabhan, T. : (ed.) ``New Challenges in Astrophysics'' Lectures delivered at the Dedication Seminar, 28 December 1992, New Age International (P) Ltd. Publishers (1997).

S.V. Dhurandhar and Padmanabhan T. (eds.): ``Gravitation and Cosmology'' Proceedings of the ICGC-95 Conference held at IUCAA, Pune, India on December 13-19, 1995, Kluwer Academic Publishers (1997).

Padmanabhan T. (ed.): ``Astronomy in India: A Historical Perspective'', Springer (2011).

Past Students:  

The following students have done their PhD work under the supervison of Padmanabhan. Their current affiliations are given in brackets:

  • T.R. Seshadri (Univ. of Delhi, Delhi)
  • T.P. Singh (TIFR, Bombay)
  • J.S. Bagla (IISER, Mohali)
  • L. Sriramkumar (IIT, Chennai)
  • K. Srinivasan (CFL, Bangalore)
  • S. Shankaranarayanan (IIT, Mumbai)
  • Sunu Engineer (Embedded computing machines)
  • T. Roy Choudhury (NCRA, Pune)
  • Sudipta Sarkar (IIT, Gandhinagar)
  • Gaurang Mahajan (NCCS, Pune)
  • Dawood Kothawala (IIT, Chennai)
  • Sanved V. Kolekar (CBS, Mumbai)
  • Suprit Singh (IIT, Delhi)
  • Krishna Parattu (Instituto de Fisica, Valparaiso, Chile)
  • Sumanta Chakraborty (IACS, Kolkatta)
  • Karthik Rajeev (IACS, Kolkatta)
  • In addition, Padmanabhan was strongly involved, at the level of a co-supervisor, in the Ph.D work of Ali Nayeri (Chapman University) and Nissim Kanekar (NCRA, Pune).

    Other Contributions in Science:

    Professor Padmanabhan has given several popular science lectures and has authored more than 100 popular science articles which have been published in several national and international journals. Notable among them are the following:
  • Story of Physics, a comic strip serial published in Science Age from Sept. 84 to Dec. 86
  • `Playthemes' - a column on recreational mathematics, published in Science Today from June 1985 to April 1992
  • `Milestones in Science' - a monthly column describing the historical development of sciences published in Science Today from Jan 1990 to April 1992
  • `Cosmic Canvas' - a monthly column published in `Economic Times', dealing with several aspects of cosmology
  • `Cosmic Snapshots' - weekly column in the newspaper DNA running through 2009 celebrating the International Year of Astronomy (co-authored with J.V.Narlikar)
  • The IYA Astronomical Diary is 53 pages of astronomical information, celebrating IYA09 (with J.V.Narlikar and Samir Dhurde).  
  • `Snippets in Physics' - a 24 installment set of pedagogical articles on various aspects of theoretical physics published in the journal `Resonance' in 2008-2009; pdf files avaliable through the links at the end of the list of publications
  • `Dawn of Science' - a 24 installment set of articles on the early history of all branches of science published in the journal `Resonance' in 2010-2012; pdf files avaliable through the links at the end of the list of publications.