Girish Agarwal
Regents Professor of Physics
2010
Prof. Girish Agarwal was born on 7 July 1946 in Bareilly, Indiandia. He obtained Ph.D. in 1969 for which he was awarded the Eastman Kodak Prize of
the University of Rochester.
Professor Agarwal has been a world leader in quantum optics. His scientific contributions provided new directions of research in quantum optics. He laid the foundations for optical resonance and nonlinear optical phenomena in partially coherent fields; quantum electrodynamic phenomena at surfaces; vacuum Rabi splittings in high Q-cavities; radiative decay of auto-ionizing states in the presence of intense laser fields and the control of the efficiency of nonlinear optical processes.
Prof. Agarwal’s work has been recognized by a large number of awards, including the Max-Born Prize from the Optical Society of America in 1988, the Physics Prize of the Third World Academy of Sciences in 1994, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1982). He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America, the Indian National Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Third World Academy of Sciences. He was honored with the Humboldt Research Award (1997) of Germany and Honorary doctorate from the University of Liege, Belgium.
Prof. Agarwal is responsible for building a first-rate School of Physics at the University of Hyderabad. He was the Director of the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad for 10 years and, in addition, held the Indian National Science Academy’s Albert Einstein Research Professorship.
During his career, he has published more than 500 papers in top international journals, including review articles and a research monograph. He serves on the editorial boards of many international journals.
