Abstract :

It is an interesting and remarkable fact that every Nobel-⁠prize winning piece of work in Experimental Physics has been carried out on apparatus which has been designed and developed by the physicist in question, be it Raman, Mossbauer or Binnig. This makes the question of how we build an instrumentational base for cutting-⁠edge research in India relevant. I will discuss this in the context of two hi-⁠tech instruments which my team has developed: Scanning Probe Microscopes for various applications and Physical Properties Measurement Systems for research in nano-⁠science, from both the materials and condensed matter view-⁠points. The talk will, in addition, focus on how the expertise we have built up can help in facilitating research (in the pertinent fields) at all our institutions.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Dr. Sahdev joined the Physics Department of IITK after several years of teaching and research in leading groups at Cornell University, Univ. of Pennsylvania, and the International Center for Theoretical Physics (Italy) among others. While at these centers, he worked and interacted with several nobel laureates including Prof.Salam, Ken Wilson, Steven Weinberg and Richard Feynman. Prof. Sahdev has contributed to several branches of physics: He was a co-⁠discoverer of radiation zeroes and of their use in determining the anomalous magnetic moment of the W-⁠boson. He is one of the original pioneers of the field of higher-⁠dimensional cosmologies. He has worked on the non-⁠linear dynamics of Josephson-⁠Junction arrays and has developed several algorithms for simulating them. More recently, he has made important contributions to the area of indigenous instrumentation. In particular, he and his group have developed several Scanning Probe Microscopes, Physical Properties Measurement and Data-⁠acquisition Systems, all of which have reached internationally competitive standards. Prof Sahdev is now a full-⁠time mentor of Quazar Technologies, an innovative hi-⁠tech Delhi-⁠based Company.​ All are welcome !