From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Indian physicist
Radha Balakrishnan
is an Indian
theoretical physicist.
She is a retired professor at the
Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai
, India. After her early work in condensed matter physics on quantum crystals, she switched fields to
nonlinear dynamics
and has published research papers on a variety of topics.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
Education
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Balakrishnan pursued her physics honours from
Delhi University
and finished her
M.Sc.
in 1965. She has a
Ph.D.
from
Brandeis University
.
Career
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During the 1980s, when Balakrishnan returned to India, she worked at the department of theoretical physics,
University of Madras
as a research associate. She joined
Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai
in 1987. She retired in the year 2004 and since that time, Balakrishnan has been continuing her research as a
CSIR
Emeritus Scientist. Her current research is on
nonlinear dynamics
,
solitons
and applications in physics, connections to classical
differential geometry
.
[1]
An autobiographical essay of her career in Indian academia and sciences appears in '
Lilavati's Daughters
' published by the
Indian Academy of Sciences
in 2008. Balakrishnan has spoken at occasions in her first person account, as well as at conclaves on gender barriers for women in
STEM
, and the challenges she had to overcome.
[5]
Personal life
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Radha Balakrishnan is married to
V. Balakrishnan
who is an Indian theoretical physicist. They have two children,
Hari Balakrishnan
and Hamsa Balakrishnan, who are both faculty members at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
.
[6]
Awards & Honours
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From the 1990s, she had been studying the deep connections between nonlinearity and the differential geometry of curves and surfaces. In 1995-96, Balakrishnan was awarded a
Fulbright Scholarship
[7]
to pursue research on 'Non-linear dynamics in Low-Dimensional Magnetic Systems,' as a visiting scholar hosted by the
Los Alamos Scientific Laboratories
. In 1999, Balakrishnan received the
Tamil Nadu
Scientists Award in the Physical Sciences for her work.
[8]
She also received
INSA
’s Professor
Darshan Ranganathan
Memorial Lecture Award (2005) for original and pioneering contributions in nonlinear dynamics.
[9]
References
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External links
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