Physicist and teacher A.P. Balachandran passes away

Theoretical physicist and teacher A.P. Balachandran, known for his work in understanding the physics of fundamental particles, passed away on April 18 in Coimbatore.

He was the Joel Dorman Steele emeritus professor at Syracuse University and an internationally recognised theoretical physicist.

After completing his bachelor’s degree at the Madras Christian College, he received his Ph.D from the University of Madras under the guidance of Alladi Ramakrishnan. He was the first graduate student of Matscience, now known as the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai. He did his postdoctoral work at the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Vienna and the Enrico Fermi Institute in Chicago.

He joined as a faculty member at Syracuse University in 1964 and stayed there until his retirement. He essayed a key role in making the university a thriving research centre and an attractive destination for physicists from countries around the world, including India.

Prof. Balachandran also won the Wasserstrom Award for Graduate Teaching in 1991, awarded by the university for excellent mentorship of students. He also graduated nearly 40 students.

As a researcher, Prof. Balachandran’s major contribution was in reviving the Skyrme Model. This is a way to describe particles such as protons and neutrons as entities called topological solitons. He used topology and differential geometry to understand the structure of the theories underlying the Standard Model, currently scientists’ best framework to understand how subatomic particles interact with each other. His work focused on quantum chromodynamics, the part of the model that deals with forces inside atomic nuclei. He remained active as a researcher until the end.

Among other honours, Prof. Balachandran was feted by the American Chapter of the Indian Physics Association for contributions to physics in 1992. He was a fellow of the American Physical Society from 1988. He also wrote at least seven books and monographs on quantum field theory, group theory, and Hopf algebra with applications in quantum physics, and contributed to more then 200 publications. He is survived by his wife and son.