Famous theoretical physicist EC George Sudarshan passed away in Texas, USA on Monday. He worked in the subjects of quantum zeno effect, optical coherence, open quantum system, non-variance groups among others.
Sudarshan had been teaching as a professor at University of Texas for over 40 years.
Born in Pallam, Kottayam district in Kerala, to Achamma Varghese and Iype Chandy in 1931, he went to CMS College in Kottayam, and did his Masters in University of Madras. He worked for a small period at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research(TIFR), along with Homi Bhabha.
He received his PhD from the University of Rochester in 1958. Later, he did his post-doctoral fellowship under Julian Schwinger, an American Nobel-prize winning theoretical physicist.
He was one among the nominees for the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2005. But it was Roy Jay Glauber, the scientist with whom Dr. Sudarshan made the “Sudarshan-Glauber representation”, who was awarded one half of the Nobel Prize for Physics for “his contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence”. This had caused a lot of debate in the science fraternity circles; however, the Swedish Academy stuck to their stand that more than three individuals could not be awarded in a specific category in the same year.
Some of his major works include the V-A theory of weak forces, in particle physics. This was further propagated by renowned physicists Richard Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann. He, along with three other scientists also proposed the possible existence of Tachyons, Meta particles which have a speed faster-than-light. This led to many scientists focusing their study and work on particle physics.
In 2007, the government of India recognised and awarded the physicist with the second highest civilian award, Padma Vibhushan. Dr. Sudarshan was also awarded the Dirac Medal in 2010, which is known to be given out to scientists who have made substantial contributions in theoretical physics, computational chemistry and mathematics.