Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri (14 September 1923-18 June 2005) was a leading physicist well known for his contributions to relativistic cosmology, particularly Raychaudhuri's equation, which is a key ingredient in proving the Penrose-Hawking singularity theorems of general relativity. This deceptively simple result has played such a key role in the development of this beautiful and important subject that for this reason alone, it has been said, Raychaudhuri belongs in the first rank of Indian physicists.
Raychaudhuri was born in Barisal, which later became part of Bangladesh. His father was a schoolteacher. After earning a master's degree in 1945, Raychaudhuri spent four miserable years doing experimental work. During this time, working in complete isolation, he taught himself differential geometry and the theory of general relativity. In 1952 he took a research job with the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), but to his frustration was required to work on the properties of metals rather than general relativity, which was not yet considered to be truly part of the mainstream of physics. Despite these adverse pressures, he was able to derive and publish the famous equation which is now named for him a few years later.
Some years later, having learned that his 1955 paper was highly regarded by such luminaries as Pascual Jordan, Raychaudhuri was sufficiently emboldened to submit a doctoral dissertation, and duly received his degree in 1959. In 1961, Raychaudhuri joined the faculty of his alma mater, Presidency College in Calcutta. In his long career he became much admired as a gifted teacher.
Ironically, his work was not widely recognized in India until the nineteen seventies, when he belatedly became a well known scientific hero. Shortly before his death, a documentary film on his career was completed.
References
- Dadich, Naresh (2005). "Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri (1923–2005)". Current Science. 89: 569–570. See the on-line version.
Recent Comments