Prof Ramamurti Rajaraman, a renowned theoretical physicist and Emeritus Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), passed away on July 12 at the age of 86. <\/p>\n
He was a great theoretical physicist who contributed enormously to our understanding of nonlinear phenomena in quantum field theory and gauge theories. He was also a great teacher. He preferred to be called a \u2018teacher\u2019 instead of \u2018professor\u2019 in conferences. He was affectionately known as \u2018Douggy\u2019 to his friends, and he even used this as his user ID in emails. <\/p>\n
The scientist <\/p>\n
Prof Rajaraman was born on March 11, 1939, studied at Stephen\u2019s College, Delhi, and went to Cornell for his PhD under the Nobel laureate Hans Bethe. <\/p>\n
Also read | Quantum physics 100 years on: Experts meet in Germany, where it all began<\/a><\/p>\n His work on the three-nucleon problem in nuclear forces with his advisor was well recognised. He continued on elementary particle physics, quantum field theory, gauge theories, and soliton physics. His exact results on soliton solutions using topological features and quantisation of the same proved to be fruitful as a general methodology.<\/p>\n His book on \u2018An Introduction to Solitons and Instantons in Quantum Field Theory\u2019 has become a bible to graduate students studying such phenomena. He studied, along with John Bell (of Bell inequality fame), the fractional fermion numbers in certain circumstances, which were confirmed in Polyacetylene. He spent sabbaticals in all the great places for theoretical physics like Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford and CERN. He studied along with S L Sondhi of Princeton on the Quantum Hall effect and constructed composite field operators. <\/p>\n Career & recognitions <\/p>\n Prof Rajaraman made significant contributions to physics and was recognised with the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar prize in 1983. <\/p>\n He worked at Delhi University, the Indian Institute of Science, and later moved to JNU in 1993, where he served till retirement. Subsequently, he became Emeritus Professor. He was a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc) and Indian National Science Academy (INSA) and served as the Editor of the Pramana, the research journal of the IASc.<\/p>\n He received the \u2018Leo Szilard Lectureship\u2019 from the American Physical Society for his efforts to promote peace and nuclear security in South Asia. INSA also decorated him with the GP Chatterjee Memorial Award.<\/p>\n The teacher <\/p>\n Prof Rajaraman was known for his teaching skills among his students. His down-to-earth teaching methods from first principles in any subject attracted a lot of students to him. <\/p>\n