Jayant Vishnu Narlikar
Jayant Narlikar was born on July 19, 1938 in
Kolhapur, Maharashtra and received his early education in the campus of Banaras
Hindu University (BHU), where his father Vishnu Vasudeva Narlikar was Professor
and Head of the Mathematics Department. His mother Sumati Narlikar was a
Sanskrit scholar. After a brilliant career in school and college, Narlikar got
his B.Sc. degree in 1957. He went to Cambridge for higher studies, becoming a
Wrangler and Tyson Medallist in the Mathematical Tripos. He got his Cambridge
degrees in mathematics: B.A.(1960), Ph.D. (1963), M.A. (1964) and Sc.D. (1976),
but specialized in astronomy and astrophysics.
He distinguished himself at Cambridge with the Smith’s Prize in 1962 and
the Adams Prize in 1967. He later
stayed on at Cambridge till 1972, as Fellow of King’s College (1963-72) and
Founder Staff Member of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy (1966-72). During this period he laid the foundations
of his research work in cosmology and astrophysics in collaboration with his
mentor Fred Hoyle.
Narlikar returned to India to join the Tata
Institute of Fundamental Research (1972-1989) where under his charge the
Theoretical Astrophysics Group acquired international standing. In 1988 he was
invited by the University Grants Commission as Founder Director to set up the
proposed Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA). Under
his direction IUCAA has acquired a world-wide reputation as a centre for
excellence in teaching and research in astronomy and astrophysics. He retired
from this position in 2003. He is now Emeritus Professor at IUCAA.
In 1966, Narlikar married Mangala Rajwade, a
Ph.D. in mathematics. They have three daughters, Geeta, Girija and Leelavati,
all of whom have opted for careers in science.
Narlikar is internationally known for his work
in cosmology, in championing models alternative to the popularly believed big
bang model. He was President of the Cosmology Commission of the International
Astronomical Union from 1994 to 1997. His work has been on the frontiers
of gravity and Mach’s Principle,
quantum cosmology and action at a distance physics. He has received several
national and international awards and honorary doctorates. He is a Bhatnagar
awardee, as well as recipient of the M.P. Birla award, the Prix Janssen of the
French Astronomical Society and an Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society
of London. He is Fellow of the three national science academies as well as of
the Third World Academy of Sciences. Apart from his scientific research,
Narlikar has been well known as a science communicator through his books,
articles, and radio/TV programmes. For these efforts, he was honoured by the
UNESCO in 1996 with the Kalinga Award.
Narlikar recently broke new grounds in space
research. Since 1999 he has been
heading an international team in pioneering experiments designed to sample air
for microorganisms in the atmosphere at heights of up to 41 km. Biological
studies of the samples collected in 2001 and 2005 led to the findings of live
cells and bacteria, thus opening out the intriguing possibility that the Earth
is being bombarded by microorganisms some of which might have seeded life
itself here.
Narlikar was decorated Padmabhushan in 1965, at
the young age of 26. In 2004 he was awarded Padmavibhushan. In 2011, the Government of the State of
Maharashtra gave him the State’s highest civilian honour of Maharashtra
Bhushan.
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