List of Speakers

Professor S. M. Chitre

Distinguished Professor

University of Mumbai & Department of Atomic Energy

Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences

Prof. Chitre is presently the Academic Chairperson and Emeritus Professor, CBS, and INSA Honorary Scientist at the University of Mumbai. He is Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy,

National Academy of Sciences, India Third World Academy of Sciences, Maharashtra Academy of Sciences, Royal Astronomical Society and International Astronomical Union. His research interests are broadly in the area of Solar Physics, Physics and Astrophysics of Collapsed Objects and Gravitational Lensing.

Dr. Anil Bhardwaj

Director, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad

Dr. Anil Bhardwaj is a well-known Scientist of the country in the field of Planetary and Space Sciences. He was the Director of Space Physics Laboratory (SPL) of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) during 2014 to February 2017. In February 2017 he became the Director of Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad. He was the Principal Investigator (PI) of SARA experiment on the first Indian Lunar mission Chandrayaan-1. He is the PI of MENCA experiment on the Indian Mars Orbiter Mission. He and his team have PI-lead experiments on Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter, Rover and Lander missions, as well as Aditya-L1 mission. He has worked at NASA Marshall Space Flight Centre, USA, for about 2 years during 2004-2005.
Dr. Bhardwaj has received many awards and honours, including Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (2007), Indo-Swedish Award from Swedish Research Council (2010), Distinguished Alumnus Award (2015) from Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), INSA-Vainu Bappu Memorial (International) Award (2016), Decennial Award of Indian Geophysical Union, and the coveted Infosys Prize in Physical Sciences (2016), just to name a few. ISRO honored him with the ISRO Merit Award in 2012 and the Outstanding Achievement Award in 2016.
He is an elected Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (2010), Indian Academy of Sciences (2009), National Academy of Sciences India (2014. He is also an elected member of the International Academy of Astronautics. He was elected President of Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) Planetary Science for 2006-2010 and is currently the Vice-Chair of COSPAR Commission B.

Professor Subir Sachdev

Herchel Smith Professor of Physics at Harvard University

Prof. Sachdev is Herchel Smith Professor of Physics at Harvard University from July 1, 2015 onwards. He had been Professor of Physics at Harvard University, July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2015; Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Yale University, July 1, 1995 to June 30, 2005; Stanley S. Hanna Visiting Professor, Stanford University, Fall 2017; Dr. Homi Bhabha Chair Professorship at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2019. He is the Cenovus Energy James Clerk Maxwell Chair in Theoretical Physics (Visiting) at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Feb 1, 2014 onwards. He is recipient of Lars Onsager Prize, American Physical Society, 2018; Star Family Prize for Excellence in Advising, Certificate of Distinction, Harvard University, 2016; Dirac Medal for the Advancement of Theoretical Physics, the Australian Institute of Physics, the University of New South Wales, and the Royal Society of New South Wales, 2015. He is a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Lorentz Chair, Instituut-Lorentz, 2012; John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow, 2003; Fellow of the American Physical Society, 2001;Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow, 1989. His research interest is in condensed matter physics.

Professor N. Sathyamurthy

Ex-Director, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali

Prof. Sathyamurthy is an eminent chemist in India. He was the founding director of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Mohali, Punjab, India and the President of Chemical Research Society of India. His research interests include Theoretical Chemistry and Molecular Reaction Dynamics. He is the recipient of INSA Young Scientist Medal, Young Associate, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, Alexander-von-Humboldt Fellowship, INSA Research Fellowship, Rev. Yedanapalli Memorial Award, Indian Chemical Society, S.S. Bhatnagar Prize in Chemical Sciences, Sir C.V. Raman Award, Hari Om Ashram Trust, University Grants Commission, FICCI Award, Silver Medal, Chemical Research Society of India, J. C. Bose Fellowship. He was an Institute Chair Professor at IIT Kanpur. He is Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, Third World Academy of Sciences.

Professor Ritabrata Munshi

School of Mathematics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, presently at ISI Kolkata

Prof. Munshi is an Indian mathematician specialising in number theory. He was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, the highest science award in India, for the year 2015 in mathematical science category. Prof. Munshi was awarded the Swarna-Jayanti fellowship by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, the B.M. Birla Science prize and was elected a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 2016.

Professor James Jackson

Professor of Geophysics, Geodynamics and Tectonics University of Cambridge

Prof. James A. Jackson, CBS, FRS was born and raised in India. His research is used earthquakes to study the processes that produce the major surface features of the continents, such as mountain belts and basins. He was a Visiting Scientist in the Seismic Discrimination Group at MIT before returning to Cambridge to take up a Research Fellow position in Queens' College, Cambridge, where he became Assistant Dean in 1983. His current research exploits techniques in earthquake source seismology, geomorphology, space geodesy and remote sensing to examine how the continents are deforming today on all scales. He addresses problems in structural geology and tectonics by focusing on places that are active now, rather than on older, inactive, basins and mountain belts. He is a part of the Dynamic Earth and Geohazards group (formerly the COMET project), part of the National Centre for Earth Observation, and the Centre for the Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes and Tectonics. He is also the lead PI on the Earthquakes Without Frontiers Project, a joint NERC-ESRC consortium supporting a partnership of physical and social scientists working to help increase resilience to earthquakes in countries in Asia.

Dr. Anirban Bandyopadhyay

Advanced Scanning Probe Microscopy group, Advanced Nano Characterisation Center (ANCC), Sengen site of National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba, Japan

Prof. Bandyopadhyay is presently working as Senior Researcher - regular scientist of NIMS. He is also adjunct Asst. Professor Michigan Technological University, USA. His research interests include Molecular Machines (MM) to address the energy crisis by developing an alternative to moletronics; using concept of a neuron, building several multi-level single molecule nano-switches and several single molecule integrated circuits, which are smallest in the world; combining ultimate single molecule integrated circuits (SMIC) and supramolecular electronics (supartonics) an intelligent monolayer is designed and neural network like matrix operation is carried out on this surface. He is a recipient of the Inamori Foundation Award, Foundation Fellow & Sewa Society International membership, Hitachi Science and Technology Foundation award, WTN Fellowship, World Technology Network (WTN) Presidents Award, Scientist of the year (2008), selected as a Young Researcher in ICYS, Japan, Young Physicist award, 2003 of Indian Physical Society.

Dr. Debiprosad Duari

Director, M. P. Birla Planetarium, Kolkata

Dr. Debiprosad Duari is presently the Director, Research & Academic of M. P. Birla Institute of Fundamental Research M. P. Birla Planetarium, Kolkata and Honorary Faculty, Physics Department, Presidency College. He was associated with a number of distinguished academic institutions including Institute for Advanced Studies, Iran, University of Cambridge, U. K., and Manchester Institute of Science & Technology, U. K. He is a fellow of Royal Astronomical Society and a member of International Astronomical Union.

Professor Debashish Goswami

Professor of Theoretical Statistics and Mathematics Unit (SMU), Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata
Debashish Goswami obtained his PhD degree from Indian Statistical Institute. He was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in 2012, in the mathematical sciences category. His research interest includes Research Interest : Noncommutative Geometry and Noncommutative Probability.