Professor Katepalli Raju Sreenivasan, University Professor and Dean Emeritus at the New York University, has been awarded this year's Fluid Dynamics Prize of the American Physical Society for his ‘fundamental contributions to fluid dynamics, especially turbulence from quantum to astrophysical scales’.
A towering figure in the world of fluid mechanics, what sets Sreenivasan apart from many is his versatility. With a PhD in aerospace engineering from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Sreenivasan has made seminal contributions on fundamentally important problems in physics, engineering and mathematics. These include his role in the development of phenomenological and multifractal ideas of fully developed turbulence, intermittency and the statistics of energy dissipation, our understanding of thermal convection, quantum and superfluid turbulence, astrophysical flows, boundary layer re-laminarization, and the problems of passive-scalars and mixing. This uniquely broad canvas allied with an equally rare flair for experiments, theory and numerical simulations has led repeatedly to the birth of new ideas. It is natural then that this Prize is the latest in an impressive record of honours and recognition.
For a man whose career continues to embody the spirit of science without boundaries, we are honored that Professor Sreenivasan has had a long association with ICTS. Having served in the past on our International Advisory Board, he is currently an Honorary Fellow of TIFR. More recently, he also delivered the ICTS-Infosys Chandrasekhar lectures as a part of the discussion meeting Turbulence from Angstroms to light years.
On being congratulated for this honour, Professor Sreenivasan expressed his warm wishes for ICTS and its growth, emphasising that in the process we hire faculty who "are not only experts in an important field of science, but also have interests beyond their specific field of expertise and will contribute to the unity of science as an enterprise."
We look forward to many, many years of inspired scientific leadership and ideas from Professor Katepalli Raju Sreenivasan as well as a close and continuing association with ICTS.