Ramamurti Shankar (born April 28, 1947) is the Josiah Willard Gibbs professor of

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

Education

He received his B. Tech in electrical engineering from the

Indian Institute of Technology The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are central government owned public technical institutes located across India. They are under the ownership of the Ministry of Education of the Government of India. They are governed by the Institu ...

Madras 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 ...

and his Ph.D. in theoretical particle physics from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

(1974).

Career

His research is in theoretical

condensed matter physics Condensed matter physics is the field of physics that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter, especially the solid and liquid phases which arise from electromagnetic forces between atoms. More generally, the sub ...

, although he is also known for his earlier work in theoretical

particle physics Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) an ...

. In 2009, Shankar was awarded the Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize from the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

for "innovative applications of field theoretic techniques to quantum condensed matter systems". After three years at the Harvard Society of Fellows, he joined the Yale physics department, which he chaired between 2001-2007. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the second Indian after S. Chandrasekhar to be a member of

Harvard Society of Fellows The Society of Fellows is a group of scholars selected at the beginnings of their careers by Harvard University for their potential to advance academic wisdom, upon whom are bestowed distinctive opportunities to foster their individual and intell ...

. His Youtube lectures have been viewed by over 20 million people. In 2004 he was appointed the John Randolph Huffman Professor of Physics and in 2019 the

Josiah Willard Gibbs Josiah Willard Gibbs (; February 11, 1839 – April 28, 1903) was an American scientist who made significant theoretical contributions to physics, chemistry, and mathematics. His work on the applications of thermodynamics was instrumental in t ...

Professor of Physics.

Selected publications

*'' Principles of Quantum Mechanics'', Plenum, 1994. *''Basic Training in Mathematics'', Plenum, 1995. *''Fundamentals of Physics'', Yale Press, 2014. *''Fundamentals of Physics II'', Yale Press, 2016. *''Quantum Field Theory and Condensed Matter: An Introduction,'' Cambridge University Press, 2017.

References

External links

Ramamurti Shankar webpage
at Yale University
Fundamentals of Physics Lectures on YouTube.
1947 births Living people University of California, Berkeley alumni 21st-century American physicists Yale University faculty 20th-century Indian physicists IIT Madras alumni Indian condensed matter physicists Tamil scientists Scientists from Tamil Nadu Fellows of the American Physical Society Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences {{US-physicist-stub