Prof. G. Rajasekaran on the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, in 2006.
| Photo Credit: M.V.N. Murthy/Special association
Prof. Guruswamy Rajasekaran, a doyen of particle physicists of India, breathed his final on May 29, 2023. The group of scientists, particularly particle physicists, in India have misplaced a most revered voice. He was many issues – a researcher, mentor, instructor, and science populariser. His was a multifaceted life value celebrating.
Star scholar
Rajaji, as he was affectionately referred to as by his admirers, was the primary of ten kids born in 1936 in a small city, Kamuthi, close to Madurai in Tamil Nadu. His dad and mom had modest means; his father owned a store promoting brass vessels. Higher schooling was a downside and Rajaji obtained a mortgage scholarship from the Nadar Mahajana Sangam and additionally the merit-cum-means scholarship of the Madras state authorities to pursue intermediate research on the American College in Madurai in 1952.
He accomplished his undergraduate research in Madras Christian College (MCC) in 1954. While at MCC, he had the chance to fulfill many scientists from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), which led him to use for the Atomic Energy Establishment Training School, which later grew to become the BARC coaching faculty. He topped the primary batch of practically 150 trainees by a broad margin in 1958. He obtained a gold medal, a lot later, from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh throughout the golden jubilee of the coaching faculty in 2007.
He selected to affix TIFR to pursue his analysis in theoretical physics. He did his thesis work with Richard Dalitz on the University of Chicago, with a yr at Oxford University, earlier than returning to TIFR in 1964. He married Suthandra Devi in 1965. His daughters Poongodhai and Uma had been born in 1966 and 1972 respectively.
Unified principle
Rajaji’s work is broadly within the space of particle and nuclear physics. He was most likely one of many first ones to see the large potential of the Weinberg-Salam mannequin in physics, which described particles and their interactions, within the late Nineteen Sixties. He gave a course of lectures on this electroweak unified principle on the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in 1971. This was the primary of such programs within the nation however most likely additionally the world. Many younger physicists benefited tremendously from these lectures.
One of Rajaji’s regrets was that despite the fact that he had a “seat on the front row”, he missed out on the “big stage” since he felt he might have made many extra vital contributions to this subject. The electroweak unified principle describes how two elementary forces of nature, the electromagnetic and the weak-nuclear (concerned in radioactive decay) forces, unify at a excessive vitality.
Rajaji moved to the University of Madras in 1976, primarily to be in a place with a giant variety of college students in addition to to be nearer dwelling to his roots. With the addition of Rajaji, the Department of Theoretical Physics at Madras University, already nicely established, grew to become among the best locations to do theoretical physics in India.
IMSc and INO
In 1984, Rajaji was appointed because the joint director of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences after the founder-director Alladi Ramakrishnan retired. In the primary 5 years, Rajaji went about constructing a robust physics group, hiring a younger group of researchers from establishments all all over the world. He confronted the brunt of a turbulent interval within the late Eighties, however issues quickly normalised and Rajaji continued his analysis work till his formal retirement in 2001; even after this, he continued as professor emeritus. In this time he was additionally concerned in organising and persevering with the expansion of the Chennai Mathematical Institute.
Rajaji on the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai
| Photo Credit:
M.V.N. Murthy/Special association
An vital side of Rajaji’s contributions is the proposal in 2000 to arrange the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO), a facility to detect and research subatomic particles referred to as neutrinos. According to the proposal, the INO would home the world’s most huge magnetised iron detector. He additionally contributed to defining the physics objectives of such a detector, primarily by the research of naturally occurring atmospheric neutrinos. Rajaji was additionally concerned with choosing the positioning, and canvassed vigorously for this very formidable challenge. Unfortunately, it has nonetheless not seen the sunshine of day at present.
True scholar
All by his life, Rajaji was an exemplary instructor who didn’t hesitate to show at any stage – from faculty college students to superior researchers and academics. He communicated with most of the people in Tamil and wrote extensively about science, particularly the INO, in each English and Tamil. He did his analysis, public outreach, and institute-building in a refreshingly energetic, trustworthy approach. He was a beneficiant and kind-hearted one that would by no means say no when assist was wanted.
Rajaji was lively in analysis for greater than six a long time. He made important contributions in a wide selection of areas, together with hypernuclear physics, flavour physics, present algebra, neutral-current weak interactions, the integer quark mannequin, string principle, new types of quantum statistics, neutrino physics, and darkish matter, amongst others. He was at all times eager to enlarge his sphere of exercise and affect over the event of particle physics within the nation, and was in that sense a true scholar.
In the passing away of Rajaji, we’ve misplaced a colossus who touched the lives of a giant variety of folks – college students, collaborators, buddies, and household. We will miss him, his boundless enthusiasm, and his infinite optimism.
D. Indumathu is a professor and M.V.N. Murthy is a retired professor, each on the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai.
