Ganapathy Baskaran is an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experime ...

, known for his work on condensed matter physics and strongly correlated quantum materials. Baskaran is an

Emeritus Professor ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of physics at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and holds a Distinguished Visiting Research Chair at the

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI, Perimeter, PITP) is an independent research centre in foundational theoretical physics located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1999. The institute's founding and major benefactor i ...

in Waterloo,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Recently he became a Distinguished Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (Chennai), India. Baskaran completed his undergraduate education at the Thiagarajar college and the American College in

Madurai Madurai ( , also , ) is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District. As of the 2011 census, it was the third largest Urban agglomeration in ...

. He got his PhD in theoretical physics from the

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, in the Indian state of Karnataka. The institute was ...

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

in 1975. In 1987–88, Baskaran, along with P.W. Anderson at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

, developed the resonating valence bond theory to describe the behavior of

high-temperature superconductor High-temperature superconductors (abbreviated high-c or HTS) are defined as materials that behave as superconductors at temperatures above , the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. The adjective "high temperature" is only in respect to previou ...

s. Baskaran is also known for his discovery of emergent

gauge field In physics, a gauge theory is a type of field theory in which the Lagrangian (and hence the dynamics of the system itself) does not change (is invariant) under local transformations according to certain smooth families of operations ( Lie group ...

s in strongly correlated systems, predictions of p-wave superconductivity in

strontium ruthenate Strontium ruthenate may refer to two compounds: * Monostrontium ruthenate, SrRuO3, a ferromagnetic perovskite. * Distrontium ruthenate, Sr2RuO4, a perovskite superconductor that does not contain copper. {{set index Strontium compounds Rutheniu ...

and of high-temperature superconductivity in

graphene Graphene () is an allotrope of carbon consisting of a single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice nanostructure.

and graphite at optimal doping. In 1983, Baskaran was the first recipient of the

ICTP Prize The International Centre for Theoretical Physics Prize, ICTP Prize, worth 3000 Euros is awarded to a young (under 40) physicist or mathematician from a developing country to promote theoretical mathematics and physics research in the developing wor ...

awarded by the

International Center for Theoretical Physics The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) is an international research institute for physical and mathematical sciences that operates under a tripartite agreement between the Italian Government, United Nations Education ...

Trieste, Italy Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into pr ...

to young scientists in developing countries for work in physics and mathematics. He was a Member at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent schola ...

in 1996. He was also awarded the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (SSB) is a science award in India given annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for notable and outstanding research, applied or fundamental, in biology, ...

by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

in 1990; and in 2019 he was awarded the G.N. Ramachandran - SASTRA Award. He also obtained Distinguished Alumni Award of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and The Thiagarajar College, Madurai, India.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baskaran, Ganapathy Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century Indian physicists Indian Institute of Science alumni Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Physical Science Scientists from Chennai Indian condensed matter physicists