The Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI) is an institution dedicated to research in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

theoretical physics 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 experim ...

, located in

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administra ...

(officially Prayagraj),

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 195 ...

in India. Established in 1975, HRI offers masters and doctoral program in affiliation with the

Homi Bhabha National Institute The Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI) is an Indian deemed university established by the Department of Atomic Energy, which unifies academic programmes of several of its constituent institutions. Deemed universities in India have been divid ...

. HRI has a residential campus in

Jhusi Jhusi or Jhunsi is a town and a part of Allahabad municipal corporation in Allahabad district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It was formerly called Pratishthan Pur or Puri. The place is also noted for being one of the Neolithic sites ...

town near Allahabad on the banks of the River

Ganges The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

. The institute has over 30 faculty, 50 doctoral students and 25 post-doctoral visiting research fellows and scientists. HRI is funded by the

Department of Atomic Energy The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) (IAST: ''Paramāṇu Ūrjā Vibhāga'') is a department with headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. DAE was established in 1954 by a Presidential Order. DAE has been engaged in the development of nuc ...

(DAE) of 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, ...

History

The institute was founded as the Mehta Research Institute of Mathematics and Mathematical Physics in 1975, with an endowment from the B.S. Mehta Trust,

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commer ...

. The institute was initially managed by Badri Nath Prasad and following his death in January 1966 by S.R. Sinha, both from the

Allahabad University , mottoeng = "As Many Branches So Many Trees" , established = , type = Public , chancellor = Ashish Chauhan , vice_chancellor = Sangita Srivastava , head_label ...

. The first official director of the institute was

Prabhu Lal Bhatnagar Prabhu Lal Bhatnagar (8 August 1912 – 5 October 1976), commonly addressed as P. L. Bhatnagar, was an Indian mathematician known for his contribution to the Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook operator used in Lattice Boltzmann methods (LBM). Bio ...

in 1975 when it became truly operational. He was followed by S.R. Sinha again. On 29 November 1975 B. Devadas Acharya joined the Mehta Research Institute (MRI) as its first postdoctoral fellow and on 1 January 1980 was appointed as the first assistant professor of mathematics at MRI. During his research work between 1975 and 1984, he gave many talks on graph theory and its applications in computing. In one of his talks to international audiences, he envisioned a computing engine based on matrices which would be much more powerful. Sharadchandra Shankar Shrikhande joined the institute as its director in January 1983. The institute was facing financial difficulties, and Shrikhande sought DAE support for the institute. Following the recommendations of the DAE review committee, the

Government of Uttar Pradesh The Government of Uttar Pradesh (ISO: Uttar Pradesh Sarkār; often abbreviated as GoUP) is the subnational government of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh with the governor as its appointed constitutional head of the state by the President ...

committed to provide a campus for HRI, while the DAE committed to provide full funding for all operational expenses. In January 1990, the institute was granted about in

town of Allahabad district and H.S. Mani took over as Director. The institute moved to its present campus in 1996. Since then, the institute has grown in facilities, scope of research as well as number of faculty and students. In October 2000, the institute was renamed in honor of renowned Indian mathematician

Harish-Chandra Harish-Chandra FRS (11 October 1923 – 16 October 1983) was an Indian American mathematician and physicist who did fundamental work in representation theory, especially harmonic analysis on semisimple Lie groups. Early life Harish-Chandr ...

. Ravi S. Kulkarni succeeded Mani as the director in August 2001 and was followed by

Amitava Raychaudhuri Amitava Raychaudhuri is an Indian theoretical particle physicist. He is Professor Emeritus at the Physics Department of the Science College, University of Calcutta where he earlier held the Sir Tarak Nath Palit Chair Professorship. He is the ...

in July 2005. Jayanta Kumar Bhattacharjee followed in May 2011.

Research activities

The HRI Mathematics research group has four teams with focus on

Algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary ...

Analysis Analysis ( : analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (3 ...

Geometry & Topology ''Geometry & Topology'' is a peer-refereed, international mathematics research journal devoted to geometry and topology, and their applications. It is currently based at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom, and published by Mathematica ...

and

Number Theory Number theory (or arithmetic or higher arithmetic in older usage) is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and integer-valued functions. German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855) said, "Ma ...

. The HRI Physics research group consists of teams focused on

Astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...

, Condensed Matter Physics, High Energy Physics,

String Theory In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and intera ...

and

Quantum Information & Computation In physics, a quantum (plural quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity (physical property) involved in an interaction. The fundamental notion that a physical property can be "quantized" is referred to as "the hypothesis of quantizati ...

. Prominent HRI faculty members in the area of String Theory include Ashoke Sen and Rajesh Gopakumar. HRI faculty member in the area of Quantum Information and Computation includes Arun K. Pati, Aditi Sen De and Ujjawal Sen. Besides its research, the Mathematics group is known for conducting the annual ''Summer Programme in Mathematics'' (SPIM), a highly popular scheme that invites interested undergraduates from across India for an intensive month-long immersive program in advanced mathematics. The Physics group has also started ''Visiting Students Program'' (VSP) in Physics to motivate students for higher studies in Physics.

Awards

HRI faculty members have received numerous research awards. The following faculty members of the institute have received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology: * Ashoke Sen (1994) *

(1997) * Biswarup Mukhopadhyaya (2003) * Pinaki Majumdar (2007) * Rajesh Gopakumar (2009) * Aditi De (2018) Ashoke Sen received the prestigious Infosys Prize in 2009 and Fundamental Physics Prize in July 2012.Allahabad physicist Ashoke Sen wins prize, becomes crorepati overnight
Indiatvnews.com (1 August 2012). Retrieved on 2013-12-06. He was also awarded the prestigious civilian award Padma Bhushan by President of India in April 2013. Rajesh Gopakumar received the

International Centre 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 Educatio ...

Prize in 2006.

References

{{authority control Physics institutes Mathematical institutes Homi Bhabha National Institute Research institutes in Uttar Pradesh Universities and colleges in Allahabad Science and technology in Allahabad Educational institutions established in 1965 1965 establishments in Uttar Pradesh Theoretical physics institutes