Khagol 120

No. 120 - October 2019 Obituary Professor Pran Nath Pandita Professor Pran Nath Pandita, who was a VisitingAssociate of IUCAAfrom 1999, passed away on June 12, 2019 at Pune, at the age of 70, following a long illness. He andMrs. Pandita have for long been familiar faces in IUCAA. They visited frequently, were always pleasant and courteous to everyone, but largely kept to themselves. He spoke only when he had to, in his characteristic gravelly voice, always with authority and conviction. He worked very hard and fruitfully, even through his long illness, as can be seen from his many publications, visits, talks and other academic activities, and themany recognitions he received. I first met Professor Pandita when I was a research student at TIFR, Mumbai, and he was aVisiting Fellow there, I believe, with Professor Virendra Singh. He came to TIFR after his PhD and post- doctoral work in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, in particle physics. After spending two years in TIFR, Professor Pandita got a faculty position in North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) in Shillong, which was then a new university, where he remained until retirement. After that, he was first a Raja Ramanna Fellow, and then an INSA Senior Scientist, until his passing away, at the Centre for High Energy Physics (CHEP) at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. Professor Pandita was a very accomplished and productive physicist. His early work was on scattering phenomena in particle physics, which was very much in vogue in those years. He later switched to supersymmetric theories, in which he worked for many years, making notable contributions. He has also made important contributions to statistical physics and Higgs physics (A summary of Professor Pandita’s research can be found in his obituary by Professor B. Ananthanarayan in Current Science, July 10, 2019, Vol. 117, p 150). Professor Pandita’s contributions are all the more remarkable considering that he worked in relative isolation in NEHU. He had a good network of colleagues and collaborators, of course, and he travelled widely. Nevertheless, the volume and quality of work he did from NEHU should provide inspiration to all those whowork away from themain research centres. Professor Pandita was a highly dedicated and excellent teacher and a very good speaker. He was a member of various important national and institutional committees, including the Scientific Advisory Committee of IUCAA. He was well recognised for his work, receiving the Humboldt Fellowship, the J. C. Bose Fellowship, and the Raja Ramanna Fellowship amongst several other honours and awards. He was a Fellow of all three national academies in the country. In Professor Pandita’s passing away, IUCAA has lost one of its most dedicated and productive Visiting Associates. Ajit Kembahvi Former Director, IUCAA 14