Seema Sharma is an experimental particle physicist who was also part of the experimental discovery of Higgs Boson at CERN. She is an Associate Professor, in the department of physics at the Indian institute of Science education research, Pune – India.
In this episode we discuss about her journey from Rajsamand Rajasthan, to TIFR Bombay, then to FermiLab US and then to IISER Pune. We did a deep dive on what it takes to be an experimental physicist. We discuss about the role of conceptual understanding of various topics in physics, including quantum physics, to do cutting edge experiments. She further revealed her understanding of doing mega science projects in large collaborative networks and how it has influenced her thinking. There is a small and nice segment in Hindi in which Seema explains about her research and motivations.
Sutirth Dey is an evolutionary biologist. He is a Professor of Biology at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. In this conversation we discussed about his own evolution as a biologist, his career trajectory from Patna, Delhi, Bangalore to Pune, and how his knowledge, research and teaching has been influenced by the interactions he had over the years. There is a nice segment in Bengali and Hindi where he explains his research on evolutionary biology and ecology. We also discussed his deep interest in reading and Qawwali music, and many more things…
Aditi Sen (De) is a Professor at HRI, Allahabad. We had a freewheeling conversation on her biography, research on quantum information, motherhood, her experience of working in Europe and India. Also we have small segment in Bengali বাংলা (her mother tongue) on quantum research and motivations. Listen as we humanize science…
I tell the story behind laser invention. It is a story of human imagination, tenacity, device invention, intense competition, blame and humour. I discuss how the Cold War era USA created an environment to innovate and compete, all thanks to Sputnik…
I discuss the legacy of two important individuals Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Sivaramakrishna Chandrasekhar and their students. I highlight their styles of doing research and how they inspired important schools of thought. I emphasize the role of economic privilege and gender. I discuss Bimala Buti and mention about interesting books on women in science : Lilavatis Daughters and Lab Hopping.
Goodby, John W. “Sivaramakrishna Chandrasekhar (1930–2004).” Nature 428, no. 6986 (April 2004): 906–906. https://doi.org/10.1038/428906a.
Gray, G. W., G. R. Luckhurst, and E. P. Raynes. “Sivaramakrishna Chandrasekhar. 6 August 1930 — 8 March 2004: Elected FRS 1983.” Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 53 (January 2007): 127–41. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.2007.0015.
Wali, Kameshwar C. A Quest for Perspectives: Selected Works of S Chandrasekhar (With Commentary)(In 2 Volumes). IMPERIAL COLLEGE PRESS, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1142/p175.
Wali, Kameshwar C. S Chandrasekhar: The Man Behind the Legend. PUBLISHED BY IMPERIAL COLLEGE PRESS AND DISTRIBUTED BY WORLD SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING CO., 1997. https://doi.org/10.1142/p030.
How does science approach failure and ignorance? What is an experiment? What can we learn from a failed experiment? How ignorance plays a relevant role in science and technology? I discuss these and related issues in this episode.
Swenson, Loyd S. The Ethereal Aether; a History of the Michelson-Morley-Miller Aether-Drift Experiments, 1880-1930. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1972. http://archive.org/details/etherealaetherhi0000swen.
Adam Grant [@AdamMGrant]. “Compassion Is Kinder and Healthier than Empathy. Evidence: When We Feel Others’ Pain, We Often Get Overwhelmed and Withdraw. When We Feel Concern for Their Pain, We Reach out and Help. The Point of Compassion Isn’t to Share Their Feelings. It’s to Care about Their Feelings. Https://T.Co/EHDwUxHUJd.” Tweet. Twitter, May 24, 2023. https://twitter.com/AdamMGrant/status/1661377095736389640.
In my research group, we study the interaction of light with soft-matter from a photonics viewpoint.
Until now, I have supervised 11 PhD theses, 11 MS theses, a few post-docs and several undergraduate students at IISER Pune (see my group members – past and present). I continue to learn a lot from them.
Another strand of my research is the history of science. I am interested in the historical evolution of ideas in physical sciences and technology. I research the life and work of past scientists, innovators, and people driven by curiosity, and I write about them from an Indian and Asian perspective. My motivation is to humanize science.
Writing has been an integral part of my life since my childhood (1980s), and I have been in the process since the ‘pre-internet’ era. I have been blogging since 2008 or so. You can access my old blog site here.
You can access and listen to my audio podcast – Pratidhvani – Humanizing Science, on -Spotify, YouTube (audio), Google Podcast or Apple podcast (all links below).