Ramamurti Shankar

A John Randolph Huffman Professor of Physics, Ramamurti has won numerous awards and received his bachelor degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras in 1969. A native of South India, he was inspired by the books of Richard Feynman and taught himself physics. After obtaining his Ph.D in theoretical particle physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1974 he spent three years in the Harvard Society of Fellows. He joined the Yale Physics department in 1977. Professor Shankar will lecture on ancient Indian mathematicians, who gave the world the concept of zero and many early results in geometry, trigonometry algebra, and astronomy and the Tale of Three Tamils: the tragic mathematical genius S. Ramanujan, followed by C.V Raman and S. Chandrasekhar, the uncle and nephew who won Nobel Prizes in Physics in 1930 and 1983 respectively. Professor Shankar will also discuss other scientists and the profound role the Internet has played in Third World science.

Upcoming Expeditions

No scheduled expeditions.