Ashoke Sen being felicitated by IACS director Kalobaron Maiti with a portrait of Sen drawn by a student
The first lecture had been delivered at Calcutta University (CU), the institution Presidency College was affiliated with when he graduated in 1975. You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Kolkata | Silver Rate in Kolkata | Bank Holidays in Kolkata | Public Holidays in Kolkata | Kolkata AQI | Weather in Kolkata | Petrol Price in Kolkata | Diesel Price in Kolkata | CNG Price in Kolkata | LPG Price in Kolkata Stay updated with the latest Kolkata news.
Kolkata: Theoretical physicist Ashoke Sen, the first Indian to win the Oskar Klein Medal for his research in string theory, delivered the Mahendra Lal Sircar Memorial Lecture on “Gravity from Strings and Strings from Gravity” on Friday at Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS). Maiti said, “Nobel laureate Hans Bethe had once said there are two types of genius. There was silence throughout the lecture as Sen explained questions like “Why String Theory?”, “Why haven’t we found its experimental signature?”, “What can we learn about quantum gravity from string theory?” and “Is string theory inevitable for studying quantum theory of gravity?” in a simple manner with a PowerPoint presentation.
This was his second lecture in Kolkata, and was delivered on the occasion of the 193rd birth anniversary of Mahendra Lal Sircar and as part of the celebration of IACS’s 150th foundation anniversary. Sen was felicitated by IACS director Kalobaron Maiti with a bouquet, shawl, memento and a portrait of Sen drawn by a student. Ordinary geniuses do great things, but they leave you room to believe that you could do the same if you only worked hard enough. Then there are magicians, and you can have no idea how they do it. Professor Sen is actually a curious mix of both. but accompanied with the phenomenal logical clarity and mathematical precision he teaches with, he also makes his listeners believe that they could also obtain such results if they only worked hard enough While he is certainly a magician. Despite being one of the world leaders in the field of string theory, Sen is one of the most accessible scientists and an extremely humble person. We are honoured to host him for the Mahendra Lal Sircar Lecture. Dressed in a t-shirt, cargo pants and sandals, Sen delivered an engrossing lecture to the audience at the M L Sircar Hall. The auditorium was filled to capacity, with some even sitting on the floor. A huge crowd — comprising students from various departments of IACS and other institutions — gathered to see Sen, request his autograph or take a picture with him. After the lecture, some asked questions, and he answered each in detail. Download the TOI App.