Famous Physicists from India

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Updated June 15, 2019 73.6K views44 items

List of notable or famous physicists from India, with bios and photos, including the top physicists born in India and even some popular physicists who immigrated to India. If you're trying to find out the names of famous Indian physicists then this list is the perfect resource for you. These physicists are among the most prominent in their field, and information about each well-known physicist from India is included when available.

Famous Indian people of physics include everyone from Homi J. Bhabha to Jayant Narlikar.

This historic physicists from India list can help answer the questions "Who are some Indian physicists of note?" and "Who are the most famous physicists from India?" These prominent physicists of India may or may not be currently alive, but what they all have in common is that they're all respected Indian physicists.

Use this list of renowned Indian physicists to discover some new physicists that you aren't familiar with. Don't forget to share this list by clicking one of the social media icons at the top or bottom of the page. 
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  • A. P. Balachandran
    • Birthplace: India
    Aiyalam Parameswaran Balachandran (born 25 January 1938) is an Indian theoretical physicist well known for his extensive contributions to the role of classical topology in quantum physics. He is currently an emeritus professor in the Department of Physics, Syracuse University, where he was previously the Joel Dorman Steele Professor of Physics between 1999 and 2012. He has also been a fellow of the American Physical Society since 1988and was awarded a prize by the U.S. Chapter of the Indian Physics Association in recognition of his outstanding scientific contributions. In 1990, Syracuse University honored him with a Chancellor's Citation for Exceptional Academic Achievement.
  • Abhas Mitra
    • Birthplace: India
    Abhas Mitra is an Indian astrophysicist best known for his distinct views on several front-line astrophysics concepts, particularly black holes and Big Bang Cosmology. His research has received widespread attention, especially in India, which is reflected from the fact that he is one of the most cited Indian Physicists on the web. He has regularly questioned the mainstream cosmological concepts of "Big Bang" and "Black Hole". He claims to have offered exact proofs that The so-called Black Holes cannot be true black black holes even within the context of classical General relativity and The Big Bang solution is illusory and actual universe must be fundamentally different from the big bang paradigm. Consequently Dark Energy, his research claims, is an illusion caused by the departure of the complex universe from the simple big bang model. He is a Distinguished Alumnus of Mumbai University. As of 2014, he heads the theoretical astrophysics section of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India.
  • Abhay Ashtekar
    • Birthplace: Kolhapur, India
    Abhay Vasant Ashtekar (born 5 July 1949) is an Indian theoretical physicist. He is the Eberly Professor of Physics and the Director of the Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry at Pennsylvania State University. As the creator of Ashtekar variables, he is one of the founders of loop quantum gravity and its subfield loop quantum cosmology. He has also written a number of descriptions of loop quantum gravity that are accessible to non-physicists. In 1999, Ashtekar and his colleagues were able to calculate the entropy for a black hole, matching a legendary 1974 prediction by Hawking. Oxford mathematical physicist Roger Penrose has described Ashtekar's approach to quantum gravity as "The most important of all the attempts at 'quantizing' general relativity." Ashtekar was elected as Member to National Academy of Sciences in May 2016.
  • Ajoy Ghatak
    • Birthplace: Lucknow, India
    Ajoy Ghatak is an Indian physicist and author of physics textbooks. Ajoy Ghatak has written over 170 research papers and more than 20 books (see Selected Publications below). His undergraduate textbook on Optics has been translated to Chinese and Persian and his monograph on Inhomogeneous Optical Waveguides (coauthored with Professor Sodha) has been translated to Chinese and Russian. In 1995, he was elected Fellow of the Optical Society of America "for distinguished service to optics education and for his contribution to the understanding of propagation characteristics of gradient index media, fibers and integrated optical devices".He received his M.Sc from Delhi University and Ph.D from Cornell University. Professor Ghatak joined the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 1966. He retired as an Emeritus Professor of Physics at IIT Delhi in 2007Professor Ghatak now spends his time writing books and doing special guest lectures at universities and colleges in India and internationally. In recent years, he has taken a keen interest in bringing the genius of Albert Einstein to the wider public and was invited to present a TEDx talk, "Inside Einstein's mind" in 2017
  • Arun K. Pati
    Arun Kumar Pati is an Indian physicist notable for his research in quantum information and computation, the theory of geometric phases and its applications, as well as quantum mechanics. He has made pioneering contributions in the area of quantum information. He is considered an important physicist in the field of quantum information and quantum computation in India, perhaps the first.
  • Ashoke Sen

    Ashoke Sen

    Age: 67
    • Birthplace: Kolkata, India
    Ashoke Sen, FRS (; born 1956) is an Indian theoretical physicist and distinguished professor at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad. He is also the Morningstar Visiting professor at MIT and a distinguished professor at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study. His main area of work is string theory. He was among the first recipients of the Fundamental Physics Prize “for opening the path to the realisation that all string theories are different limits of the same underlying theory”.