Ashoke Sen FRS (; born 1956) is an Indian

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experime ...

and distinguished professor at the

Harish-Chandra Research Institute The Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI) is an institution dedicated to research in mathematics and theoretical physics, located in Allahabad (officially Prayagraj), Uttar Pradesh in India. Established in 1975, HRI offers masters and doctora ...

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administra ...

. He is also an honorary fellow in

National Institute of Science Education and Research The National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) is an autonomous premier public research institute in Jatani, Odisha, India under the umbrella of Department of Atomic Energy, Govt. of India. The institute is a constituent ...

(NISER), Bhubaneswar, India and also a Morningstar Visiting professor at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

and a distinguished professor at the

Korea Institute for Advanced Study The Korea Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS) is an advanced research institute in South Korea. It is located on a campus in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul. KIAS was founded in 1996, aiming to become a world leading research institute where interna ...

. His main area of work is

string theory In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and intera ...

. He was among the first recipients of the Fundamental Physics Prize "for opening the path to the realization that all string theories are different limits of the same underlying theory".

Early life

He was born on 15 July 1956 in Kolkata, and is the elder son of Anil Kumar Sen, a former professor of physics at the

Scottish Church College Scottish Church College is a college affiliated by Calcutta University, India. It offers selective co-educational undergraduate and postgraduate studies and is the oldest continuously running Christian liberal arts and sciences college in A ...

, Kolkata, and Gouri Sen, a homemaker. After completing his schooling from Sailendra Sircar Vidyalaya in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1975 from the Presidency College under the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every yea ...

, and his master's a year later from the

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) Hindi: भारतीय प्रौद्योगिकी संस्थान कानपुर) is a public institute of technology located in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was ...

. During his undergraduate studies at Presidency, he was greatly inspired by the work and teaching of

Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri (14 September 1923 – 18 June 2005) was an Indian physicist, known for his research in general relativity and cosmology. His most significant contribution is the eponymous Raychaudhuri equation, which demonstrates that ...

. He did his doctoral work in physics at

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system' ...

Career

Ashoke Sen made a number of major original contributions to the subject of

, including his landmark paper on strong-weak coupling duality or

S-duality In theoretical physics, S-duality (short for strong–weak duality, or Sen duality) is an equivalence of two physical theories, which may be either quantum field theories or string theories. S-duality is useful for doing calculations in theoret ...

, which was influential in changing the course of research in the field. He pioneered the study of unstable

D-branes In string theory, D-branes, short for ''Dirichlet membrane'', are a class of extended objects upon which open strings can end with Dirichlet boundary conditions, after which they are named. D-branes were discovered by Jin Dai, Leigh, and Polc ...

and made the famous Sen conjecture about open string

tachyon condensation A tachyon () or tachyonic particle is a hypothetical particle that always travels faster than light. Physicists believe that faster-than-light particles cannot exist because they are not consistent with the known laws of physics. If such parti ...

on such branes. His description of rolling tachyons has been influential in

string cosmology String cosmology is a relatively new field that tries to apply equations of string theory to solve the questions of early cosmology. A related area of study is brane cosmology. Overview This approach can be dated back to a paper by Gabriele Ve ...

. He has also co-authored many important papers on

string field theory String or strings may refer to: * String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian ani ...

. In 1998, he won the fellowship of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

on being nominated by the theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. His contributions include the entropy function formalism for extremal black holes and its applications to attractors. His recent important works include the attractor mechanism and the precision counting of microstates of black holes, and new developments in string perturbation theory. He joined the

(NISER), Bhubaneswar, India as an honorary professor in the School of Physical Sciences. In the year 2020, he has joined

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal (IISER-B or IISER – Bhopal) is an autonomous institute. ] in Bhauri, Bhopal district, Madhya Pradesh, India. It was established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, G ...

(IISER Bhopal), Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India as a Visiting / Adjunct Professor in the department of Physics.

Honors and awards

ICTP Prize The International Centre for Theoretical Physics Prize, ICTP Prize, worth 3000 Euros is awarded to a young (under 40) physicist or mathematician from a developing country to promote theoretical mathematics and physics research in the developing wor ...

in 1989 *Fellow of the

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and Nobel Laureate C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 24 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it began with 65 founding fellows. The first general meet ...

in 1991 * S.S. Bhatnagar award in 1994 *

TWAS Prize This is a list of recipients of the TWAS Prize, awarded annually by The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). Summary Agricultural Sciences Biology Chemistry Earth Sciences Engineering Sciences Mathematics Medical Sc ...

1997 *

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemati ...

1998 *Fellow of the

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi for Indian scientists in all branches of science and technology. In August 2019, Dr. Chandrima Shaha was appointed as the president of Indian National Science Acade ...

in 1996 *

Padma Shri Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conf ...

in 2001 *

Infosys Prize The Infosys Prize is an annual award given to scientists, researchers, engineers and social scientists of Indian origin (not necessarily born in India) by the Infosys Science Foundation and ranks among the highest monetary awards in India to r ...

in the

Mathematical Sciences The mathematical sciences are a group of areas of study that includes, in addition to mathematics, those academic disciplines that are primarily mathematical in nature but may not be universally considered subfields of mathematics proper. Statist ...

, 2009 *

Doctor of Science Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

(

Honoris Causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

), 2009, awarded by

IIT Kharagpur Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) is a Public university, public institute of technology established by the Government of India in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. Established in 1951, the institute is the first of the Indi ...

*Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa), 2011, awarded by Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur (Presently

Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur (IIEST Shibpur), erstwhile Bengal Engineering College (also known as B.E. College), formerly Bengal Engineering and Science University (also known as BESU), is a public research u ...

) * Fundamental Physics Prize, 2012, for his work on string theory *

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

in 2013 *M.P. Birla Memorial Award in 2013 *Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa), 2013, awarded by

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay or IITB) is a public research university and technical institute in Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is considered as one of the best engineering universities in India and is top rank ...

Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Docto ...

(honorary), 2013, awarded by

Jadavpur University Jadavpur University is a public state university located in Jadavpur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was established in 1905 as ''Bengal Technical Institute'' and was converted into Jadavpur University in 1955. In 2022, it was ranked fourth am ...

Dirac Medal The Dirac Medal is the name of four awards in the field of theoretical physics, computational chemistry, and mathematics, awarded by different organizations, named in honour of Professor Paul Dirac, one of the great theoretical physicists of the 20 ...

in 2014

Gallery

File:Ashoke Sen and Sumathi Rao.jpg, Sen and Prof. Sumathi Rao with students at Harish-Chandra Research Institute, 2018. File:Ashoke Sen at Berbeque Festival.jpg, Sen preparing barbecue chicken at Barbecue Festival (Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Feb 2019)

References

External links

*
Ashoke Sen CV"Thomson Honours Leading Indian Scientists"
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sen, Ashoke 1956 births Living people Presidency University, Kolkata alumni Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Fellows of the Royal Society IIT Kanpur alumni 20th-century Indian physicists Stony Brook University alumni Indian string theorists University of Calcutta alumni Recipients of the Padma Shri in science & engineering Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in science & engineering Scottish Church Collegiate School alumni Scientists from Kolkata TWAS laureates Indian theoretical physicists Bengali physicists Bengali scientists