About The Institute |
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The Early Years Till 10th October 2000 the Institute was known as the Mehta
Research Institute
of Mathematics and Mathematical Physics (M.R.I).
On 11.10.2000 it was renamed as Harish-Chandra Research Institute
(H.R.I) after the mathematician, late Prof. Harish-Chandra. The Institute started with the efforts of Dr. B. N. Prasad, a
mathematician at the University of Allahabad, who obtained the initial
support from the B. S. Mehta Trust, Kolkata. Dr. Prasad was succeeded
in January 1966 by
Dr. S. R. Sinha, also of Allahabad University. He was followed by Prof.
P. L. Bhatnagar, who joined as the first formal Director.
On Prof. Bhatnagar's demise in October 1976, the responsibilities were
again
taken up by Dr. Sinha.
In January 1983, Prof. S. S. Shrikhande of Bombay University joined as
the
next Director of the Institute. During his tenure the dialogue
with the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) entered into the decisive
stage and a
review committee was constituted by the DAE for examining the future of
the Institute.
In 1985 the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh,
agreed to provide sufficient land for the Institute and the
DAE promised financial support for meeting both the recurring and
non-recurring expenditure. In January 1992, finally, about 66 acres of
land was acquired in Jhunsi, Allahabad. Prof. Shrikhande was followed by Prof. H. S. Mani who took over as the Director in January 1992. With his joining and, the shift to the new campus at Jhunsi in 1996, the activities of the Institute picked up quickly. This phase of rapid growth is still continuing.
After a distinguished tenure of about nine years Prof. Mani
retired in August 2001 and the charge was taken over by Professor Ravi
S.
Kulkarni. Currently the Director of the Institute is Professor
Amitava Raychaudhuri who joined in July 2005. The Institute continues
to be devoted to fundamental research in various
fields of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and is a Fully
Aided Institute, within the DAE family, Govt of India. Since the year
1992 it has
achieved satisfactory progress, as is evident from the recognition
received by many of
its faculty members, both at the national and international levels.
Amongst them, Prof. Ashoke Sen, Prof. D. Prasad, B. Mukhopadhyaya and
Dr. D. Choudhury merit special mention. Prof. Ashoke Sen has been
elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and also honoured with the
Padmashree Award. Prof. B. Mukhopadhyaya was awarded the prestigious
S. S. Bhatnagar award in the year 2003. Prof. I.B.S. Passi was
conferred The Distinguished Service Award for the year 2003 on April
13, 2004 from The Mathematical Association of India and awarded the
Life-time Service Award by INSA, New Delhi in 2004. Dr. D.
Choudhury won the Swarnajayanti Fellowship. The Institute has a residential campus in Jhunsi, with a very
well endowed
research library, state of the art computational facilities and fast
Internet links to the outside world. There is an active graduate
program and a large traffic of visiting
scientists and students at the Institute.
H.R.I is now considered a premier institute for research in fundamental
physics and mathematics in the country. During the last year Prof. Ashoke Sen, Prof. I.B.S. Passi,
Prof. Rajesh Gopakumar, and Prof. Satya Deo have brought further
recognition to the institute. Prof. Ashoke Sen was awarded the INSA
S.N. Bose Medal,
Prof. I.B.S. Passi the Life-time Services Award by INSA,
and Prof. Rajesh Gopakumar the B.M. Birla
Science Prize for Physics in 2004. Prof. Satya Deo was
given the Distinguished Service Award 2006 by the Mathematical
Association of India.
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