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Dr. Kumar Shwetketu Virbhadra, a native of Nadwan (Patna), is an Astrophysicist of repute presently working as Research Associate Professor at the University of Sciences in Philadelphia (USA). His research work has earned him international recognition in the field of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and Astrophysics. He is credited with his five research papers having been included in the list of top 50 most cited papers in General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology during the year 2006 according to the list published by Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre, California (USA).
The list for 2006 contains papers of the most famous astrophysicist Prof. S. W. Hawking, Prof. S. Weinberg (a Nobel laureate in physics), and some other leading scientists. It is indeed remarkable that Dr. Virbhadra has the maximum number (five) of papers on such a prestigious list while it is regarded very esteemed to have even one paper included in this list.
View the complete list
here.
Dr. Virbhadra, who passed High School from Nadwan High School, earned his I.Sc., B.Sc. and M. Sc. degrees from Patna University and Ph. D. degree from Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad. He was taught Einstein’s general theory of relativity by Prof. P.C. Vaidya of Gujrat University. As a Ph. D. student of Physical Research Laboratory (Ahmedabad), he had published the maximum number of independent (sole-authored) papers in leading international journals in the history of that institution. He has worked at several institutions including Duke University (USA), University of Cape Town (South Africa), and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (India). He moved to the United States in the year 2000 and since then he has been working there.
Dr. Virbhadra has also been fortunate to have the opportunity to collaborate and publish papers with two renowned scientists: Professor Nathan Rosen (a principal collaborator of Albert Einstein – the greatest physicist of the last centaury) and Professor G. F. R. Ellis (of Hawking-Ellis fame). Prof. Rosen is known for the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox, Einstein-Rosen bridge, and Einstein-Rosen gravitational waves. Dr. Virbhadra, as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Ellis, collaborated on three papers with him. The well-known Virbhadra-Ellis lens equation has enlivened the research field of black hole lensing.
Dr. Virbhadra is currently working on the cosmic censorship hypothesis, which is considered (by Hawking and Penrose) the most important unsolved problem in classical general relativity and it has immense implications for astrophysics. In fact, he (with Professors Narasimha, Chitre and Ellis) has already made a pioneering contribution that the cosmic censorship hypothesis of Penrose could be tested observationally through gravitational lensing. He has worked on several important topics in Einstein’s general theory of relativity and
astrophysics and his papers have over 1500 citations, which is considered very high in this subject.
Besides being a research scientist of repute, Dr. Virbhadra has not forgotten his roots and he loves his native state and country from the core of his heart. He is very keen to popularize science there and will be happy to help and guide those willing to pursue research career in Astrophysics. He can be contacted at:
shwetket@yahoo.com
News about Dr. Virbhadra published on June 19, 2008:
http://www.biharandjharkhand.com/achievers/profile/research/virbhadra_news19062008.htm
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