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Roddam Narasimha

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Roddam Narasimha
Born(1933-07-20)July 20, 1933
DiedDecember 14, 2020(2020-12-14) (aged 87)
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Alma materMysore University
Indian Institute of Science
California Institute of Technology
Scientific career
FieldsFluid dynamics
Thesis Some Flow Problems in Rarefied Gas Dynamics [1][2]  (1961)
Doctoral advisorHans W. Liepmann[3]
Doctoral studentsK. R. Sreenivasan
Rama Govindarajan

Roddam Narasimha (20 July 1933 – 14 December 2020) was an Indian aerospace scientist and fluid dynamicist. He was a Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) (1962 to 1999), Director of the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) (1984 to 1993) and the Chairman of the Engineering Mechanics Unit at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore, (2000 to 2014) India.[4] He was the DST Year-of-Science Chair Professor at JNCASR and concurrently held the Pratt & Whitney Chair in Science and Engineering at the University of Hyderabad. Narasimha was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award, in 2013.[5]

Early life

Narasimha was born on July 20, 1933. His family traces its origins to Roddam, a village in the Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. His father, R.L. Narasimhaiah, was a professor of physics in Bangalore's Central College, and was also a Kannada language science writer with a focus on physics and astronomy.[6]

He obtained his graduate degree in mechanical engineering from University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering in Bangalore, which was affiliated to the Mysore University. During this time he visited the Tata Institute (now known as the Indian Institute of Science) and was drawn by the Spitfire aircraft which was on display at the Aeronautical department. Post his graduation in 1953, while he was encouraged by his family members to accept a job with the Indian Railways or with Burmah Shell, he joined the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore for his masters in engineering, which he would complete in 1955.[7] During this time he would work with Satish Dhawan, who would later go on to become the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation. He then went to the United States to complete his doctorate in 1961 under Hans Liepmann at the California Institute of Technology.[8]

Career

Narasimhan joined the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in 1962 and was associated with the Department of Aerospace Engineering in various capacities until 1999. In 1982, he founded the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences (now Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences[9]), which he headed until 1989.[10] He was the Director of the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) from 1984 to 1993. For many years he held a visiting position at Caltech as the Clark B Millikan Professor and Sherman Fairchild distinguished scholar. Between 1989 and 1990 he was the Jawaharlal Nehru professor of Engineering at Cambridge University in England. He also held visiting positions at NASA Langley, University of Strathclyde, University of Brussels, and Adelaide University. From 1990 to 1994 he was INSA Golden Jubilee Research Professor, and from 1994 to 1999 the ISRO K. R. Ramanathan distinguished Professor at IISc and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. He was the Director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) between 1997 and 2004.[11]

His research had focused on Aerospace Fluid dynamics and related problems in the atmosphere. He had studied transitions between laminar flow and turbulent flow (going in either direction), the structure of shock waves, various characteristics of fully developed turbulent flow (e.g. their memory, the bursting phenomenon in boundary layers), the fluid dynamics of clouds, near-surface temperature distributions and eddy fluxes in atmospheric boundary layers.[12] He had also been closely associated with aerospace technology development in India at both technical and policy-making levels. Between 1977 and 1979, he was the Chief Project Coordinator at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).[13]

As Director of NAL he initiated and oversaw several major technological programmes. He served on the board of directors of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for several years. As a member of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's Scientific Advisory Council he was instrumental in establishing a major parallel computing initiative in the country. The parallel computing effort under the leadership of Professor Roddam Narasimha went on to generate a flow solver solution for fluid dynamics.[14] The Flowsolver Mk1 hardware was developed and manufactured by funds provided by NAL.[15] He was the President of the Indian Academy of Sciences from 1992 to 1994 and spearheaded a new programme on university education in science, leading to the establishment of the science journal Resonance[14] and other Academy programmes involving teachers and students. He has served on the National Security Advisory Board and the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Prime Minister and Cabinet. He was a member of the Space Commission,[16] and co-chaired the Joint Steering Committee and the Joint Scientific Working Group for the Indo-French atmospheric research satellite Megha-Tropiques.[17]

As Director of NIAS Narasimha initiated a series of major dialogues on International Security issues with the US National Academy of Sciences and other bodies, and pursued his interests in the history of science and technology.[13]

In February 2012, he resigned from his post as the longest serving member of the Indian Space Commission in protest at the blacklisting of three former ISRO technocrats including G. Madhavan Nair, former ISRO chairman, for their perceived role in a controversial agreement of 2005.[18][19]

Honours

In 2008 he was awarded the Trieste Science Prize by TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world.[20] He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a Foreign Associate of both the US National Academy of Engineering and the US National Academy of Sciences.[21] He was also an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. In India his distinctions included the Bhatnagar Prize and the Gujarmal Modi Award. He was a Fellow of all the National Academies of Science and Engineering in the country, and an Honorary Fellow of the Aeronautical Society of India. He was a Distinguished Alumnus of both Caltech[22] and IISc.[23] He delivered numerous invited lectures at various international conferences. In 2000 he won the Fluid Dynamics Award of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.[24] In 2009, he was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2nd Science and Technology Congress, organised by the Gulbarga University and the Science and Technology Academy on the university's campus.[25] He was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 1987 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2013.[26]

He was the author of more than 200 research publications and fifteen books.[27]

Books

  • Narasimha, Roddam (1961). Orifice Flow at High Knudsen Numbers. Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory.
  • Narasimha, Roddam (1962). Collisionless Expansion of Gases Into Vacuum. Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory.
  • Narasimha, Roddam; Ojha, S. K. (1967). Effect of Longitudinal Surface Curvature on Boundary Layers. Verlag nicht ermittelbar.
  • Narasimha, Roddam; Srinivasan, J.; Biswas, S. K. (2003). The Dynamics of Technology: Creation and Diffusion of Skills and Knowledge. SAGE. ISBN 978-0-7619-9670-5.
  • Kalam, APJ Abdul; Narasimha, Roddam; Dhawan, Satish (1988). Developments in Fluid Mechanics and Space Technology: Asian Congress of Fluid Mechanics.
  • Narasimha, Roddam (2020). Vijnaana Samskriti: ವಿಜ್ಞಾನ ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತಿ: ರೊದ್ದಂ ನರಸಿಂಹ ಅವರ ಆಯ್ದ ಬರಹಗಳ ಅನುವಾದ. Akshara Prakashana.

Personal life

Narasimha was married and had a daughter. He died on December 14, 2020 from brain haemorrhage at the MS Ramaiah Memorial Hospital in Bangalore. He was aged 87. He had earlier had a heart attack and had suffered a brain stroke in 2018.[28]

References

  1. ^ Narasimha, Roddam (1961). Some flow problems in rarefied gas dynamics (phd thesis). California Institute of Technology. Archived from the original on 15 December 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  2. ^ "Caltech Thesis Library - Roddam Narasimha" (PDF). Caltech Library. Retrieved 15 December 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ "Roddam Narasimha - The Mathematics Genealogy Project". Genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu. 4 April 2017. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  4. ^ "Prof Roddam Narasimha, former Director of CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (from 1984 to 1993) is no more. - CSIR - NAL". www.nal.res.in. Archived from the original on 15 December 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  5. ^ "Padma Awards". pib. 29 January 2013. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
  6. ^ "Roddam Narasimha: A keen scientific mind and scholar". The Week. Archived from the original on 15 December 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  7. ^ "Caltech Aerospace (GALCIT)". Galcit.caltech.edu. Archived from the original on 14 November 2013. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  8. ^ "Flow Problems in Rarefied Gas Dynamics" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 March 2016.
  9. ^ "Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences". Archived from the original on 13 August 2011. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
  10. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 26 March 2012. Retrieved 11 July 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 6 August 2012. Retrieved 11 July 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. ^ "Narasimha Roddam - research interest". Jncasr.ac.in. 24 January 2012. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  13. ^ a b "R. Narasimha | National Institute of Advanced Studies". www.nias.res.in. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  14. ^ a b "Resonance". Archived from the original on 8 January 2014. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
  15. ^ "Current Science - FLOSOLVER - Parallel Computing for Fluid Dynamics" (PDF). Current Science. Retrieved 15 December 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 28 June 2012. Retrieved 11 July 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. ^ "Roddam was part of Rajiv Gandhi's brain trust". The New Indian Express. Archived from the original on 15 December 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  18. ^ "Roddam Narasimha quits Space Commission". TheHindu.com. Associated Press. 24 February 2012. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  19. ^ "Eminent Indian space scientist quits in protest". TDNPost.com. 24 February 2012. Archived from the original on 29 February 2012. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  20. ^ "Nature - Prize Winners of the Year (2008)" (PDF). Nature. Retrieved 15 December 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. ^ "2000 NAS New Member Elections". .nationalacademies.org. 2 May 2000. Archived from the original on 13 October 2017. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  22. ^ "Caltech Aerospace (GALCIT) | Distinguished Alumni". Galcit.caltech.edu. 31 October 2009. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  23. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 15 March 2013. Retrieved 11 July 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  24. ^ "Narasimha Roddam - Academic profile". www.jncasr.ac.in. Archived from the original on 13 May 2016. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  25. ^ "Honour for scientist Roddam Narasimha". The Hindu.com. Associated Press. 22 September 2009. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
  26. ^ "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Archived from the original on 15 November 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  27. ^ "Narasimha Roddam - Publications". Jncasr.ac.in. 24 January 2012. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  28. ^ "Padma Vibhushan awardee and eminent aerospace scientist Roddam Narasimha dies". Hindustan Times. 15 December 2020. Archived from the original on 15 December 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
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