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Spenta
R. Wadia
was
born in
1950 in
Bombay
(now
Mumbai).
His
parents
provided
early
encouragement
to
pursue a
career
in
science.
He
attended
St.Mary’s
High
School
and
St.Xavier’s
College,
Mumbai
(1967-
70) for
his
bachelor’s
degree
in
physics
and
mathematics.
Here,
his
teachers
Rev.
Jose
Vincent
Bonet,
S. M.
Gandhi
and R.V.
Kamat,
opened
doors to
the
world of
higher
learning.
He
received
his MSc
in
physics
from the
Indian
Institute
of
Technology,
Kanpur
in 1973.
He did
his PhD
degree
in
physics
at the
City
College
of the
City
University
of New
York in
1978,
under
the
guidance
of Bunji
Sakita,
whose
attitudes
and
research
tradition
deeply
influenced
him.
From
1978-1982
he was
at the
Enrico
Fermi
Institute
of the
University
of
Chicago.
In 1982
he
joined
the Tata
Institute
of
Fundamental
Research
where he
presently
holds
the
position
of
Senior
Professor.
His main
scientific
interest
is in
elementary
particle
physics,
quantum
gravity
and
statistical
physics.
A
central
theme in
his
early
work had
been the
understanding
of
nonperturbative
gauge
field
dynamics,
especially
in
relation
to the
(yet
unsolved)
problem
of quark
confinement
and the
relationship
between
gauge
theory
and
string
theory.
His
contributions
in this
area
include:
• the
role of
surface
terms in
gauge
theories
and the
collective
coordinate
quantization
of the
’tHooft-Ployakov
monopole
(with
J.L.
Gervais
and B.
Sakita).
• the
quantization
of non-abelian
gauge
theories
with
emphasis
on gauge
invariance
and
gauge
fixing
and the
degeneracy
of
standard
gauges.
For the
coulomb
gauge he
obtained
the
explicit
equation
for the
gauge
function
with
multiple
solutions
(with T.
Yoneya).
This
phenomenon
was also
subsequently
discussed
by
Gribov.
• in
understanding
and
elucidating
the
nature
of the
large N
limit in
quantum
field
theory
and
statistical
physics.
Specifically,
he
discussed
the
large N
Gross-Witten
phase
transition
in an
exactly
soluble
low
dimensional
gauge
theory.
He
presented
a
unified
and
systematic
view of
the
large N
expansion
in
quantum
field
theory
and
statistical
mechanics
using
Schwinger-Dyson
equations.
Applying
this
method
to gauge
theories
gave the
exact
string
equations
for
Wilson
loops in
a
lattice
gauge
theory,
establishing
the
exact
string
representation
of the
gauge
theory.
• the
proposal
of the
Nambu-Jona-Lasinio
type
phenomenological
model
for
large N
and low
energy
quantum
chromo-dynamics
which
was an
improvement
on the
Skyrme
model
(with A.
Dhar and
R.
Shankar).
In 1984
(after
the
seminal
paper of
Green
and
Schwarz
appeared
with the
promise
of a
unification
with
gravity)
his
interest
shifted
to
exploring
the
(still
elusive)
underlying
principles
of
string
theory.
His
contributions
in this
area
include:
• the
generalization
of the
conformal
invariance
principle
of
string
theory
to more
general
backgrounds
in which
the
string
propagates
(with S.
Jain and
R.
Shankar).
• the
identification
of the
conformal
mode of
the
2-dim.
metric
in
noncritical
string
theory
as a
space or
time
coordinate
depending
on the
central
charge
of the
string
theory
(with S.
Das and
S. Naik).
This
lead to
a new
understanding
of time
in
string
theory
(with A.
Dhar,
K.S.
Narain
and T.
Jayaraman).
It also
led to a
relationship
between
scale
transformations
in d-dimensions
and
field
equations
in one
higher
space
dimension
(with S.
Das and
A. Dhar).
• the
discovery
of new
critical
phenomena,
characterizing
the worm
hole
phase
(as
opposed
to
smooth
or
polymerized
surfaces),
in 2-
dim.
random
surface
theory
(with A.
Dhar, S.
Das and
A. M.
Sengupta).
• a
detailed
study of
2-dimensional
string
theory
and its
non-perturbative
formulation
as a c=1
random
matrix
theory,
including
the
discovery
of its
infinite
dimensional
quantum
symmetry
(with A.
Dhar, G.
Mandal
and A.
M.
Sengupta).
This
enabled
an exact
solution
to the
long
standing
problem
of the
bosonization
of
non-relativistic
fermions
in
1-dim.
The
solution
is a
non-commutative
field
theory
for the
phase
space
density
of
fermions.
His
contributions
to the
subject
of
blackholes
include:
• the
discovery
of the
black
hole
solution
of
2-dim.
string
theory
(with G.
Mandal
and A.
M.
Sengupta).
The
opportunity
to study
black
holes in
the c=1
matrix
model
was very
attractive
and gave
much of
the
early
impetus
to
explore
the
various
conundrums
of black
hole
physics
in
string
theory.
• the
early
calculation
of
Hawking
radiation
in the
D-brane
constituent
model of
a 5-dim.
supersymmetric
black
hole
(with A.
Dhar and
G.
Mandal),
and
subsequent
work on
making a
precise
theory
of
Hawking
radiation
for this
black
hole
(with F.
Hassan,
and J.
David
and G.
Mandal).
• a
possible
role of
the
large N
Gross-Witten
transition
in
investigating
the
cross
over
from a
small
Schwarzschild
black
hole at
string
scale to
a state
of
strings.
These
investigations
point to
an
eventual
understanding
of the
fate of
large
Schwarzschild
black
holes
which
may have
bearing
on the
solution
of the
information
paradox
(with
L.Alvarez-
Gaume,
C. Gomez
and
H.Liu).
He has
always
had a
serious
interest
in
statistical
physics
and
complex
systems.
He and
his
collaborators
(P.
Lakdawala,
A. Dhar
and G.
Mandal),
invented
a
cellular
automata
model
which
could be
in any
of the
four
dynamical
phases
(suggested
by
Wolfram)
static,
periodic,
chaotic
or
computing,
depending
on the
choice
of
initial
conditions.
He has
worked
closely
with his
students:
Sanjay
Jain, R.
Shankar,
Gautam
Mandal,
Anirvan
Sengupta,
Porus
Lakdawala,
Justin
Raj
David,
V.
Ramanan
and
Pallb
Basu
(present).
He holds
the
conviction
that
mentoring
is an
essential
part of
building
and
propagating
a
scientific
tradition.
His
efforts
are
instrumental
in
establishing
a world
class
research
group in
string
theory
(and
related
areas)
at the
Tata
Institute.
He has
also
been
actively
involved
in
organizing
schools
and
workshops
elsewhere
in the
developing
world.
He is a
fellow
of the
Indian
Academy
of
Sciences,
the
Indian
National
Science
Academy,
the
National
Academy
of
Sciences
and the
New York
Academy
of
Sciences.
In the
past he
has held
long
term
visiting
positions
at the
Institute
for
Advanced
Study,
Princeton
and
CERN,
Geneva.
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