Martin Lee Chalfie

January 27,2018

Martin Lee Chalfie is an American scientist. He is University Professor at Columbia University. He shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Osamu Shimomura and Roger Y. Tsien “for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP”. He holds a Ph.D. in neurobiology from Harvard University.

After graduating in 1969, he worked at a variety of temporary jobs, such as selling dresses for his parents’ dress manufacturing business in Chicago and teaching at Hamden Hall Country Day School in Hamden, Connecticut. In the summer of 1971, his research at the laboratory of Jose Zadunaisky at Yale University resulted in his first publication. With revived confidence. He returned to Harvard for graduate studies under Robert Perlman, and received his Ph.D. in 1977.

He conducted his postdoctoral research at the LMB with Sidney Brenner and John Sulston, and the three published a paper in 1985 on “The Neural Circuit for Touch Sensitivity in C. elegans. Chalfie then left the LMB in 1982 to join the faculty of Columbia University in the department of biological sciences and continued to study C. elegans touch mutants.

Chalfie’s lab uses the nematode C. elegans to investigate aspects of nerve cell development and function. The wealth of developmental, anatomical, genetic, and molecular information available for C. elegans provides a powerful and multifaceted approach to these studies.

He traces his work on Green fluorescent protein to a 1988 seminar from Paul Brehm about bioluminescent organisms, which led to some crucial experiments in 1992, detailed in his paper “Green fluorescent protein as a marker for gene expression”, which is among the 20 most-cited papers in the field of Molecular Biology & Genetics. Chalfie won a Golden Goose Award for this work in 2012. 

Martin Lee Chalfie delivered the B.M. Birla Memorial Lecture and gave away the B.M. Birla Science Prizes on January 27, 2018.

Takaaki Kajita

December 26, 2017

Takaaki Kajita is a Japanese physicist, known for neutrino experiments at the  Kamiokande  and its successor, Super-Kamiokande. In 2015, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Canadian physicist Arthur B. McDonald.

Kajita was born in 1959 in Higashimatsuyama, Saitama, Japan. He studied physics at the Saitama University and graduated in 1981. He received his doctorate in 1986 at the University of Tokyo.

Since 1988 Kajita has been at the Institute for Cosmic Radiation Research, University of Tokyo, where he became an assistant professor in 1992 and professor in 1999. He became director of the Center for Cosmic Neutrinos at the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR) in 1999.

In 1998, Kajita’s team at the Super-Kamiokande found that when cosmic rays hit the Earth’s atmosphere, the resulting neutrinos switched between two flavours before they reached the detector under Mt. Kamioka. This discovery helped prove the existence of neutrino oscillation and that neutrinos have mass.

In 2015, Kajita shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Canadian physicist Arthur McDonald, whose Sudbury Neutrino Observatory discovered similar results.

Takaaki Kajita received the G.P. Birla Award for Life Time Achievement in Science and delivered the G.P. Birla Distinguished Lecture “Atmospheric Neutrinos and Neutrino Oscillations” on December 26, 2017.

Serge Haroche

08 January, 2016

Serge Haroche was born on September 11, 1944 in Casablanca, Morocco. Haroche worked in the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) as a research scientist from 1967 to 1975, and spent a year (1972–1973) as a visiting post-doc in Stanford University. In 1975 he moved to a professor position at Paris VI University. At the same time he taught at the École Polytechnique , Harvard University , Yale University and Conservatoire national des arts et métiers. He was head of the Physics department at the École Normale Supérieure from 1994 to 2000.  Since 2001, Haroche has been a Professor at the Collège de France and holds the Chair of Quantum Physics.

Haroche was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2012, together with the American physicist David Wineland, for their work regarding measurement and manipulation of individual quantum systems.

Serge Haroche delivered the G.P. Birla Distinguished Lecture “How Questions About Light Have Changed Our Vision of the World and Revolutionized Our Daily Lives” on January 08, 2016.

Ei-ichi Negishi

09 January 2013

Ei-ichi Negishi was born on  July 14, 1935 in Hsinking, capital of Manchukuo, now Changchun of China. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1958 and did his internship at Teijin. He went on to study in the United States and obtained his PhD from University of Pennsylvania in 1963 under the supervision of Prof. Allan R. Day. He became a postdoctoral researcher at Purdue University where he worked with Nobel Laureate Herbert C. Brown. Thereafter he went on to work at Syracuse University. Most of his career was at Purdue University, United States.

Negishi is best known for his discovery of the Negishi Coupling. He was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for palladium catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis jointly with Prof. Richard F. Heck and Prof. Akira Suzuki.

Prof. Ei-ichi Negishi in the B.M. Birla Science Prize Award Ceremony at the B.M. Birla Science Centre on January 09, 2013.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

21 December, 2013

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan was born in the year 1952 in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India. He pursued his Undergraduate studies at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda under a National Science Talent Scholarship and obtained a degree in Physics in 1971. He then moved to the United States of America and obtained his PhD in Physics from the Ohio University where he worked with Prof. Maurico Montal, a Membrane Biochemist at the University of California, San Diego. It is at this stage that he made a transition from Theoretical Physics to Biology.

He worked as a Post Doctoral Fellow at Yale University and then went to Brookhaven National Laboratory as a Staff Scientist, and in collaboration with Stephen White began cloning genes for several ribosomal proteins to determine their three-dimensional structures. He was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Prof. Thomas Steitz and Prof. Ada Yonath for studies of the structure and function of the Ribosome.

Prof. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan delivered the G.P. Birla Distinguished Lecture “Antibiotics and the Cell’s Protein Factory” on December 21, 2013. He is seen above, handing over the B.M. Birla Science Prize for 2012.

William Daniel Phillips

20 January, 2010

William Daniel Phillips was born on November 05, 1948 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

In 1997 he won the Nobel Prize in Physics (together with Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and Steven Chu) for his contributions to laser cooling, a technique to slow the movement of gaseous atoms in order to better study them, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It is a privilege to note that all the three Nobel Prize winners have delivered the B.M.  BIRLA  MEMORIAL  LECTURES.

Phillips is also a professor of physics at University of Maryland, College Park. He was one of the 35 Nobel Laureates who signed a letter urging President Obama to provide a stable $15billion per annum support for clean energy research, technology and demonstration.

Prof. William Daniel Phillips delivered the B.M. Birla Memorial Lecture “QUANTUM INFORMATION : A SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION FOR THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY” on January 20,  2010. He is seen above, handing over the B.M. Birla Science Prize for 2009.

Robert Floyd Curl, Jr.

31 December,2007

Robert Floyd Curl, Jr. was born on August 23, 1933 in Alice, Texas, United States.

Curl received a B.A. from Rice University in 1954 and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1957. Professor Curl’s current research interests involve physical chemistry, developing DNA genotyping and sequencing instrumentation, and creating quantum cascade laser-based mid-infrared trace gas monitoring instrumentation. Curl often attended the German table at Hanszen College at Rice University.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996 for the discovery of fullerence (with the late Richard Smalley, also of  Rice University, and Harold Kroto of the University of Sussex).

Prof. Robert Floyd Curl Jr. delivered  a talk and gave away the B.M. Birla Science Prizes on December 31, 2007. He is seen above with Mrs. Nirmala Birla, President of the Centre.

Claude Cohen-Tannoudji

06 December,2006

Claude Cohen-Tannoudji was born on April 01, 1933 in Constantine, Algeria.

In 1973, he became a professor at the College de France. In the early 1980s, he started to lecture on radiative forces on atoms in laser light fields. He also formed a laboratory there with Alain Aspect, Christophe Salomon and Jean Dalibard to study laser cooling and trapping.
His work there eventually lead to the physics Nobel Prize of 1997 for the development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light, shared with Steven Chu and William Daniel Phillips.

Prof. Claude Cohen-Tannoudji delivered the B.M. Birla Memorial Lecture “MANIPULATING ATOMS WITH LIGHT” on December 06, 2006. He is seen above receiving the Lifetime Achievement in Science Award from H.E. Rameshwar Thakur, Governor of Andhra Pradesh in the presence of Mrs. Nirmala Birla, President of the Centre.

Douglas Dean Osheroff

26 September, 2005

Douglas Dean Osheroff was born on August 01, 1945 in Aberdeen, Washington State, United States of America.

In 1996 Douglas Dean Osheroff got the Nobel prize for his discovery of “Superfluidity in Helium Three: The Discovery Through the Eyes of a Graduate Student”.  Together with David M. Lee and Robert C. Richardson, Osheroff  had found out that at a temperature of about two-thousandths of a degree above absolute zero (−459.7 °F. −273.15 °C) Helium-3 isotope became superfluid, they lose their usual molecular pattern. They can defy gravity, flow without losing energy to friction. They can also defy gravity by creeping up the walls or  flowing up and out of the top of a beaker.

Osheroff has received numerous honours, among them, the Sir Francis Simon Memorial Award, Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize and MacArthur Prize Fellowship Award.

Prof. Douglas Dean Osheroff delivered the B.M. Birla Memorial Lecture “THE NATURE OF DISCOVERY IN PHYSICS” on September 26, 2005.

Harold Walter Kroto

28 October, 2004

Harold Walter Kroto was born, on October 07, 1939 in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England.

In 1995 he jointly set up the Vega Science Trust a UK educational charity, to create high quality science films including lectures, interviews with Nobel Laureates, discussion programmes, careers and teaching resources for TV and Internet Broadcast. He presently carries out research in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was shared by Curl, Kroto and Smalley in 1996.

Kroto won several Awards and Honours. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1990, and was awarded a Knighthood in 1996.

Sir Harold Walter Kroto delivered the B.M. Birla Memorial Lecture “NANO MOLECULES” on October 28, 2004.

John Kendrew

1994

John Kendrew was born on March 24, 1917 in Oxford, England. 

Kendrew shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Max Perutz for determining the first atomic structures of proteins using X-ray crystallography. Their work was done at what is now the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. Kendrew determined the structure of the protein myoglobin, which stores oxygen in muscle cells. In 1963 Kendrew became one of the founders of the European Molecular Biology Organization and for many years was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Molecular Biology. He became Fellow of the American Society of Biological Chemists in 1967.

Sir John Kendrew delivered the B.M. Birla Memorial Lecture at JAIPUR in 1994.

Tenzin Guatso (The Dalai Lama)

26 December, 1997

The Dalai Lama was born on  July 06, 1935 in Tibet..

Tenzin Gyatso is the fourteenth and current Dalai Lama. As such, he is normally referred to in Western media simply as “the Dalai Lama”. Contrary to a Western misconception, he does not have spiritual authority over all Buddhists as the Pope has over Roman Catholics. In fact, he is a practising member of the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism. However, he is influential as a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, as the world’s most famous Buddhist monk, and as leader of the exiled Tibetan government in India. He is a charismatic figure and noted public speaker. This Dalai Lama is the first to travel to the West. There, he has helped to spread Buddhism and to promote the concepts of universal responsibility, secular ethics, and religious harmony.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, Honorary Canadian citizenship in 2006, and the United States Congressional Gold Medal on 17 October 2007.

H.E. Tenzin Gyatso (The Dalai Lama) delivered the Special B.M. Birla Lecture “SPIRITUALITY, ATOMISM AND NEURAL BRAIN RESEARCH” on December 26, 1997.

James Watson

27 November, 1997

James Watson was born on April 06, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.

Prof. James Watson is an American molecular biologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA.

Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize inPhysiology or Medicine “for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids  and its significance for information transfer in living material”. Watson was at the Harvard University between 1956-1976. He then moved on to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. In a retrospective summary of Watson’s accomplishments at CSHL, Laboratory President Dr. Bruce Stillman said, “Jim Watson created a research environment that is unparalleled in the world of science.” It was “under his direction [that the Lab has] made major contributions to understanding the genetic basis of cancer.” Generally in his roles as Director, President, and Chancellor, Watson led CSHL to its present day mission, which is “dedication to exploring molecular biology and genetics in order to advance the understanding and ability to diagnose and treat cancers, neurological diseases, and other causes of human suffering.”

Prof. James Watson delivered the B.M. Birla Memorial Lecture “GENES AND POLITICS” on December 26, 1996. 

Norman Borlaug

06 February, 1996

Norman Borlaug was born on March 25, 1914 in Cresco, Iowa, United States of America.

Borlaug was an American agricultural scientist, humanitarian, Nobel laureate, and had been called the father of the Green Revolution. Borlaug was one of five people in history to have won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. Borlaug was often credited with saving over a billion people from starvation. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 in recognition of his contributions to world peace through increasing food supply.

The Government of India conferred the Padma Vibhushan, its second highest civilian award on him in 2006. Dr. Borlaug also received the National Medal of Science the United State’s highest scientific honor, from U.S. President George W. Bush on February 13, 2006.

Prof. Norman Borlaug delivered the B.M. Birla Memorial Lecture “THE GREEN REVOLUTION” on February  06, 1996.

Charles Hard Townes

8 January, 2003

Charles Hard Townes was born on  July 28, 1915  in Greenville, South Carolina, United States of America.

From his early days Charles was fascinated by Physics. After completing his Masters degree in Physics at Duke University in 1936, he joined the California Institute of Technology for his PhD, which he received in 1939 for his Thesis on isotope seperation and nuclear spins. From 1933 to 1947 Dr. Townes worked at the Bell Telephone Laboratories. He was appointed as a faculty member at Columbia University in 1948. Here he continued doing research in microwave physics, particularly the interactions between microwaves and molecules. Dr. Townes got the idea of MASER in 1951. In 1964 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics jointly with the Russian team of A.M. Prokhorov and N.G. Basov of the Lebedev Institute, for their independent and “fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle.”

Prof. Charles Townes delivered the B.M. Birla Memorial Lecture “THE CREATIVE AND UNPREDICTABLE INTERACTION OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY” on January 08, 2003.

Roald Hoffmann

5 January,1998

Roald Hoffmann was born on July 18, 1937 in Zloczow, Poland.

Professor Hoffmann is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, The American Academy of Arts & Science and the American Philosophical Society. He has been elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, the Indian National Science Academy, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters, the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Nordrhein Westfallische Academy of Sciences. He has received numerous honours, including the Life Time Achivement in Science Award of the B.M. Birla Science Centre and over twenty five honorary degrees. He is the only person ever to have received the American Chemical Society’s awards in three different specific subfields of Chemistry—the A.C. Cope Award in Organic Chemistry, the Award in Inorganic Chemistry, and the Pimentel Award in Chemical Education, as well as two other ACS awards. In 1981, he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Kenichi Fukui.

Prof. Roald Hoffmann delivered the B.M. Birla Memorial Lecture “CHEMISTRY: ITS ESSENTIAL TENSIONS” on January 05, 1998.

Klaus von Klitzing

5 March, 1999

Klaus von Klitzing was born on June 28, 1943 in Schroda, Germany.

The Von Klitzing constant, is named in honour of Klaus Von Klitzing’s discovery of the Quantum Hall Effect. The constant is listed on The National Institute of Standards and Technology Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. The constant gives the inverse value of one quantum of electrical conductance.

Von Klitzing a German physicist was awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the Integer Quantum Hall Effect. Today, von Klitzing’s research focuses on the properties of low dimensional electronic systems, typically in low temperatures and in high magnetic fields.

Werner Arber

14 January, 1994

Werner Arber was born on June 03, 1929 in Granchen in the Canton of  Aaragu, Switzerland.

In 1965 he was promoted to extraordinary professor for molecular genetics at the University of Geneva. In 1971 he moved to the University of Basel. In Basel, he was one of the first persons to work in the newly constructed Biozentrum, which housed the departments of biophysics, biochemistry, microbiology, structural biology, cell biology and pharmacology and was conducive to interdisciplinary research. Along with American researchers Hamilton Smith and Daniel Nathans, Werner Arber shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology Medicine for the discovery of restriction endonucleases. Their work would lead to the development of recombinant DNA technology.

Prof. Werner Arber delivered the B.M. Birla Memorial Lecture “DNA REARRANGEMENTS IN ESCHERICHE COLI” on January 14, 1994.

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes

6 February, 1996

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes was born on October 24, 1932 in Paris.

Prof. De Gennes got the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1991. This apart he had received the Holweck Prize from the joint French British Physical Society, the Ampere Prize of the French Academy of Science, the Gold Medal from the French CNRS, the Matteuci Medal of the Italian Academy and numerous other distinctions including the Life Time Achievement in Science Award of the B.M. Birla Science Centre. He was a Member of the French Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, USA, amongst other distinctions.

Prof. Pierre-Gilles de Gennes delivered the B.M. Birla Memorial Lecture “BUBBLES, FOAMS AND OTHER FRAGILE OBJECTS” on February 06, 1996.

Ilya Prigogine

27 December, 1995

Ilya Prigogine was born on January 25, 1917 in Moscow.

At Brussels, Prigogine developed a School for the study of Thermodynamic Principles applied to several disciplines, including Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Sociology and so on. His pioneering work was in studying Thermodynamics far from the equilibrium. This lead to mathematical models of dissipative systems and self organization, something which seemed to be contrary to the usual Thermodynamic drift towards total disorder. He was awarded the 1977 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this work. Numerous honours and awards were also heaped on him over the years.

Prof. Ilya Prigogine delivered the B.M. Birla Memorial Lecture “TIME, CHAOS AND THE LAWS OF NATURE” on December 27, 1995.

Aaron Klug

18 December,1996

Aaron Klug was born on August 11, 1926 in Zelva, Lithuania. 

Sir Aaron Klug was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University in 1981. Between 1986 and 1996 he was director of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, and was Knighted in 1988.

Sir Aaron Klug was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes.

Sir Aaron Klug delivered the B.M. Birla Memorial Lecture “REGULATION OF GENE EXPRESSION” on December 18, 1996.

He is seen here with Director, Dr. B.G. Sidharth

Norman Foster Ramsey

24 March, 1994

Norman Foster Ramsey was born on August 27, 1915 in Washington, DC.  Ramsey is a physics professor at Harvard University since 1947. Ramsey also held several posts with government, international agencies as NATO and the United States Atomic Energy Commission. He was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of the separated oscillatory field method, which had important applications in the construction of atomic clocks. Ramsey shared the prize with Hans G. Dehmelt and Wolfgang Paul.

Prof. Norman Foster Ramsey, (Jr.)

delivered the B.M. Birla Memorial Lecture

“TIME AND THE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE” on March 24, 1994.

Antony Hewish

15 November, 1993

Antony Hewish was born on May 11, 1924 in Cornwall. Prof. Hewish has received a large number of honours and awards, these including the Hamilton Prize of Cambridge in 1952, the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1969, the Michelson Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1973, the Hopkins Prize of the Cambridge Philosophical Society also in 1973, and of course the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1974 for his discovery of the Pulsars.

Prof. Antony Hewish delivered the B.M. Birla Memorial Lecture “THE WONDERS OF PULSARS” on November 15, 1993.

George Porter

18 January, 1993

George Porter was born on  December 06, 1920 in Yorkshire. Lord Porter had several fellowships and honorary degrees to his credit. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1960 and got its Davy Medal in 1971. He was the Liversidge Lecturer in 1969 and the President of the Chemical Society for many years from 1970, apart from several other distinctions. He obtained honorary D.Sc.’s from Sheffield, East Anglia, Utah, Leeds, Leicester, Heriot-Watt and other Universities. Apart from his numerous other distinctions, he got the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1967 which he shared with Manfred Eigen and Ronald G.W. Norrlish one of his first teachers. He was Knighted in 1972 and subsequently became Lord Porter.

Lord George Porter delivered the B.M. Birla Memorial Lecture “ENERGY AND EVOLUTION” on January 18, 1993.

Abdus Salam

24 March, 1994

Abdus Salam was born on January 29, 1926 in a small town Jhang, now in Pakistan.

In 1964 he founded the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy with the support of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Government of Italy. After he passed away in 1996 due to protracted illness, the ICTP was renamed, most fittingly, the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics.

He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979, along with Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg for his pioneering work leading to the unification of weak and electromagnetic interactions.

William Fowler

15 March, 1990

William Fowler was born on  August 09, 1911 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

On graduation Fowler joined the world famous California Institute of Technology as a graduate student for work under the famous C.C. Lauritsen in the Kellogg Radiation Ìaboratory. Fowler received his PhD in Physics in 1936 for work which showed the symmetry of nuclear forces between protons and neutrons. Thereafter he became an Assistant Professor at Caltech.

Hoyle had a great influence on Fowler. Hoyle and the Burbidges went to Kellogg and thus in 1957 they came out with a paper, “Synthesis of the Elements in Stars”. This important work demonstrated that all the elements from carbon to uranium could be produced inside the stars, starting with the hydrogen and the helium produced in the big bang. William Fowler was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize for his researches, along with S. Chandrasekhar.

Prof. William Fowler delivered the B.M. Birla Memorial Lecture “THE EARLY UNIVERSE” on March 15, 1990.

Fred Hoyle

Fred Hoyle was born on June 24, 1915 in Bingley, Yorkshire.

Fred Hoyle held many prestigious positions and also received several honours. He was the prestigious Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge, as also the first Director of the University’s Institute of Theoretical Astronomy. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in London in 1957 and was Knighted in 1972. He was also the Member of the Scientific Research Council from 1967 to 1972. He was the Chairman of the Anglo-Australian Telescope Board in 1973. He received several honorary doctorates, medals and prizes by learned societies and international organizations including the Royal Medal of the Royal Society, the Kalinga Prize of the United Nations, the Balzan Prize and so on.

Sir Fred Hoyle delivered the B.M. Birla Memorial Lecture “FIFTY YEARS OF COSMOLOGY” on February 27, 1987.

Hermann Bondi

Hermann Bondi was born on  November 01, 1919 in Austria. Bondi held various positions during his long and interesting career, starting as a temporary Experimental Officer for the Admiralty in 1942 through Assistant Lecturer in Mathematics in Cambridge University in 1945 and Lecturer in 1948. He was Professor of Mathematics at King’s College, London in 1954 and became the Director General of the European Space Research Organization during the period 1967 to 1971. From 1971 to 1977 he was Chief Scientific Advisor to the Ministry of Defence in Britain, then Chief Scientist for the Department of Energy between 1977 and 1980 and Chief Executive of NERC between 1980 to 1984. This apart he had become a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1959 as also Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. He was Knighted in 1973.

Sir Hermann Bondi delivered the B.M. Birla Science Centre Distinguished Lecture “SCIENCE AS AN ADVENTURE”on February 06, 1990.