Biography of Jayant Vishnu Narlikar

(July 19, 1938)

Jayant Vishnu Narlikar was born in Kolhapur in Maharashtra, India on July 19, 1938. He studied at the Children School in the Benaras Hindu University campus and invariably topped in all examinations including matriculation and graduation. He did Ph. D. in 1963 from the Cambridge University.

In 1972, he came back to India and took up a professorship at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. In 1989, he became the Founder Director of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics. Narlikar has made valuable contributions to theoretical physics, astrophysics and cosmology. His work on conformal gravity theory with Fred Hoyle demonstrated how a synthesis could be achieved between Einstein's general theory of relativity and Mach's principle.

Jayant Narlikar has been honoured by the Adam Award, S.S. Bhatnagar award, M.M. Birla award, the Indira Gandhi Award, Kalinga award and the Padma Bhushan.