The 5th installment of the Eminent Guest Lecture Series: An Odyssey of Physics is being brought to you by the Department of Physics at SRM University-AP on November 20, 2021
at 10 AM IST. Our eminent guest speaker is Dr M.S. Ramachandra Rao from the Department of Physics, Quantum Centre for Diamond and Emergent Materials (QuCenDiEM), Nano Functional Materials Technology Centre, and Materials Science Research Centre, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.
About the Speaker:
Dr Rao is one of the forerunning researchers in Physics in our country and has been invited by the Nobel Committee for Physics, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, to be a nominator in the years 2009 and 2021. He has authored the books “Nanoscience and Nanotechnology: Fundamentals to Frontiers” (Wiley) – Textbook. ISBN: 9788126542017 and “ZnO nanostructures and Allied Materials” (Springer).
Dr Rao obtained both his Master’s degree and Doctorate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Over the course of his 26 years of teaching and research experience, he has published in over 200 national and international conference papers, 284 international journals, obtained 15 patents and four technology transfers, completed 20 projects, and delivered over 90 talks.
Dr Ramachandra Rao’s research team incubated a company in IITM Research Park (Kapindra). The company deals with diamond coating for industrial/defence/space applications. It is in the process of developing a product for water purification using diamond-coated electrodes. His team won the 1st prize in the DRDO Dare-to-Dream nationwide contest for their proposal to use diamond coatings in hypersonic technologies.
About the talk: Emergence: Modern Physics to Nanoscience to Advanced and Quantum Materials
The beginning of the 20th century has dawned a new era of modern physics with the evolution of a plethora of experimental techniques that include understanding of optical and x-ray spectra, Rutherford scattering, Stern-Gerlach experiment that led to the discovery of electron spin, with simultaneous progress in the fields of superconductivity, magnetism, spintronics, crystallography and the physics of low dimensional systems that in other words is termed as nanoscience which deals with 2D, 1D and 0D systems. We know that matter is made up of atoms, atoms make up crystal lattices, and electronic correlations play an important role in determining the physical properties of materials. I will explain the enormous progress materials science has made and the potential it offers in various technologies. I will talk about the emergence of ‘quantum materials’ and how quantum effects are inherently built-in certain material systems, for example, high-temperature superconductors. I will give examples citing potential applications of functional materials and brief about diamond, the wonder material for futuristic quantum applications.