Vasant Natarajan UG Fellowships

About

The Vasant Natarajan UG Fellowships have been instituted by the family of Dr Vasant Natarajan for the benefit of Undergraduate/Physics Department students at IISc.

Entitlements

Prof Vasant Natarajan was born in Chennai on December 11, 1965. After his schooling, he attended IIT Madras between 1982 to 1986, earning a BTech in Electrical Engineering. Following this, he received an MS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York in 1988 and then completely changed tracks to do a PhD in Atomic Physics from MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts. After getting his PhD in 1993, he worked for 2 years at AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill, New Jersey. He joined the Physics Department at IISc in 1996, and remained there till his demise in December 2021. His research interests were in laser cooling and trapping of atoms, quantum optics, optical tweezers, quantum computation in ion traps and tests of time-reversal symmetry violation in the fundamental laws of physics.

He was a pioneer in the field of laser cooling and trapping of neutral atoms in India, with his ‘Laser lab’ at IISc having – for the first time in this country – produced a cloud of trapped laser-cooled Rubidium atoms in 2001. His laboratory also set the path for high precision frequency metrology and quantum optics experiments employing precision atomic spectroscopy – another field hitherto not very well explored in India. He developed an entirely in-house infrastructure and expertise for almost every component required in the complex set of atomic physics experiments his lab performed. Thus, his laboratory possessed genuine expertise in developing their own semiconductor laser-based frequency tuneable light sources, precision electronics, and ultra-high vacuum systems with hardware sourced from pan-Indian suppliers. In addition, his laboratory also developed an optical tweezers system; his collaborative work with biologists on malaria parasite-affected red blood cells was internationally acclaimed.

He was also extremely interested in translating the technology his lab developed towards commercially viable devices, and launched a technology start-up on an indigenously designed solar power generator almost ten years back.

He published more than a hundred papers on both experimental and theoretical atomic physics in his scientific career – with more than 85% of them from IISc. He also wrote three books; one each on atomic and general physics, while the third was for non-physics science and arts students. The latter reflected his increasing interest in science communication, and rationalism in general. In fact, during the later stages of his life, he proceeded to write several engrossing articles dispelling non-science and advocating scientific temper in Indian popular science journals such as Resonance, Research Matters, and so on.

He was also part of the policy-making for DST’s flagship programme aimed at identifying and nurturing India’s young scientific talent right from the school level – the Kishore Vigyan Protsayan Yojna (KVPY) – when it was launched in 1999.

Prof Natarajan’s work was recognised by several awards and honours which included the Swarnajayanti Fellowship, Homi Bhabha Fellowship, and the Philips Foundation Fellowship. Many of his students are excellent experimental physicists and have set up successful laboratories in India and abroad.

Despite his physical disability, he had an indomitable spirit and focused only on the positive happenings in his life. He supported many charities including those that worked on educating the girl child. He had a very strong belief in science and was very rational in his approach to life. He was well read and had a huge collection of books. He used to write in The Hindu quite regularly on many social issues and always was supportive of the weak and marginalised sections of the society.

He passed away on December 29, 2021, leaving behind important contributions in the field of Atomic Physics and many books and articles which will inspire many generations to come.