Sanjay Puri (born 23 November 1961) 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 ...

statistical physicist and a senior professor at the School of Physical Sciences of

Jawaharlal Nehru University Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a public major research university located in New Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university is known for leading faculties and r ...

. Known for his research on non-linear dynamics, Puri is an elected fellow of the

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and Nobel Laureate C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 24 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it began with 65 founding fellows. The first general meet ...

and the

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi for Indian scientists in all branches of science and technology. In August 2019, Dr. Chandrima Shaha was appointed as the president of Indian National Science Academ ...

. The

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada''), abbreviated as CSIR, was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the l ...

, the apex agency 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, c ...

for scientific research, awarded him the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology 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 science, applied or Fundamenta ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to physical sciences in 2006.

Biography

Born on 23 November 1961 at Rampur in the Indian state of

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 1950 ...

, Sanjay Puri earned a research-based master's degree (MS), guided by K. P. Jain, for his thesis, ''Theoretical Investigations of Soliton Dynamics'' in 1982 from the

Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi is a public institute of technology located in New Delhi, India. It is one of the 23 IITs created to be Centres of Excellence for training, research and development in science, engineering and technolo ...

. Moving to the US, he secured another master's degree in physics from the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

in 1983 and continued there for his doctoral studies under guidance of Yoshitsugu Oono to secure a PhD in 1987, his thesis being ''Some Problems in the Dynamics of Spatially Extended Systems.''. Returning to India, Puri joined

the same year as an assistant professor at the School of Physical Sciences, became an associate professor in 1993 and has been working there as a professor since 2001. During this period, he also had several stints abroad as a visiting professor at institutions such as

Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (german: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany, named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. With approximately 32,000 stu ...

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

and

Kyoto University , mottoeng = Freedom of academic culture , established = , type = National university, Public (National) , endowment = ¥ 316 billion (2.4 1000000000 (number), billion USD) , faculty = 3,480 (Teaching Staff) , administrative_staff ...

Legacy

The core areas of Puri's work are in

statistical physics Statistical physics is a branch of physics that evolved from a foundation of statistical mechanics, which uses methods of probability theory and statistics, and particularly the Mathematics, mathematical tools for dealing with large populations ...

and

nonlinear dynamics In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, and many other ...

with special focus on

pattern formation The science of pattern formation deals with the visible, ( statistically) orderly outcomes of self-organization and the common principles behind similar patterns in nature. In developmental biology, pattern formation refers to the generation of ...

in nonequilibrium systems. His research is reported to have studied the effects of confined geometries and the role of defects in phase separation dynamics and the work is known to have assisted in a wider understanding of kinetics of phase ordering. Study of

granular material A granular material is a conglomeration of discrete solid, macroscopic particles characterized by a loss of energy whenever the particles interact (the most common example would be friction when grains collide). The constituents that compose gra ...

s, especially freely-evolving granular gases, was another focal point of his work. Puri's studies have been documented by way of a number of articles and the online article repository of the Indian Academy of Sciences has listed 134 of them. Besides, he has published three books, including ''Dissipative Phenomena in Condensed Matter: Some Applications'', co-authored with

Sushanta Kumar Dattagupta Sushanta Kumar Dattagupta, known better as Sushanta Dattagupta, is an Indian condensed matter physicist. He was Director of the S N Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences Kolkata between 1999 and 2005 and then he was appointed Program Co-or ...

and ''Kinetics of Phase Transitions'', an edited work. Puri has also guided several students in their studies and serves as the associate editor of ''Phase Transitions'' journal of

Taylor and Francis Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in England that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, Routledge, F1000 Research or Dovepress. It is a division of Informa plc, a United Ki ...

Awards and honors

Puri, who topped the IIT Delhi examinations in 1982, was a recipient of the Silver Medal of Excellence of the institute. The

awarded him the Young Scientist Medal in 1993 and 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 Education ...

selected him as an associate member in 1994. Puri received the N. S. Satya Murthy Memorial Award of the Indian Physics Association in 1994 followed by B. M. Birla Science Prize in 1999. He was chosen for the Homi Bhabha Fellowship in 2003 and for the J. C. Bose National Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology in 2012. In between, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him 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 science, applied or Fundamenta ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards in 2006. Puri is also an elected fellow of two of the three major Indian science academies, the

electing him in 2006 and the Indian National Science Academy fellowship reaching him in 2012.

Selected bibliography

Books

* *

Articles

* * * * *

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Puri, Sanjay Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Physical Science Scientists from Uttar Pradesh Indian scientific authors 1960 births Living people Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Indian condensed matter physicists IIT Delhi alumni Grainger College of Engineering alumni Jawaharlal Nehru University faculty Kyoto University faculty Academics of the University of Manchester