TOI NEWS- Iucaa professor wins award in physics

PUNE: Thanu Padmanabhan, distinguished Professor and Dean of Core Academic Programmes at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), has been awarded the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) prize in Physics for 2011. The award consists of $15,000 and a personalised plaque that will be given to him during the award ceremony arranged by TWAS.

"Padmanabhan is recognised for developing a thermodynamical perspective in which gravity arises as an emergent phenomenon and for contributing significantly to our understanding of dark energy," said a statement released by TWAS.

His work in the field of gravity has won prizes four times in the last seven years from the Gravity Research Foundation, USA, including the First Award in 2008, and he received the Infosys Science Foundation prize for Physical Sciences in 2009. Born in 1957, Thiruvananthapuram, Padmanabhan is an Indian theoretical physicist, and did his B.Sc (1977) and his M.Sc (1979) in Physics from University College, Kerala University.He published his first research paper (on general relativity) when he was a B.Sc student, at the age of 20 and since then he has published more than 250 research papers and nine books including six graduate-level textbooks published by Cambridge University Press.

An elected Fellow of all the three Academies of Science in India, he is currently the President of the Cosmology Commission of the International Astronomical Union and was a Sackler Distinguished Astronomer of the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge. He has won numerous awards including the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award (CSIR), the Millennium Medal (CSIR), G.D. Birla Award, Homi Bhabha Fellowship, J.C.Bose National Fellowship, INSA Vainu-Bappu Medal, Al-Khwarizmi International Award, Miegunah Fellowship of University of Melbourne.

He is also currently the Chairman of the Astrophysics Commission of International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. In recognition of his achievements, the President of India awarded him the medal of honour, Padma Shri, in 2007.