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.

The New Phase

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.