Jayant Narlikar to chair Marathi literature meet on March 26, 27

Eminent astrophysicist and litterateur Jayant Narlikar would chair the 94^th Akhil Marathi Sahitya Sammelan scheduled for March 26 and 27 in Nashik.

Prof Narlikar (82) is the emeritus professor at the Pune-based Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA).

A recipient of the coveted Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan, he was awarded the Maharashtra Bhushan award in 2011.

Born on July 19, 1938, in Kolhapur, in 1959, he cleared BSc Honours from Banaras Hindu University.

In 1963, Jayant Narlikar was awarded a PhD by Cambridge University. He stayed in Cambridge from 1957 to 1962.

Then in Mumbai, he was a professor of astrophysics in the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He is an Emeritus Professor at Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune.

Narlikar is internationally known for his work in cosmology, in championing models alternative to the popularly believed Big Bang model.

His research work in Cambridge was on the development of the steady-state theory as a viable theory of the universe and on the action at a distance approach to electrodynamics and gravity. His work with English astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle on gravity led to what is known today as Hoyle-Narlikar Theory of gravitation.

A globally-renowned scientific personality, he once appeared in Carl Sagan’s television series, ‘Cosmos: A Personal Voyage’ in the 1980s.

In 2014, he received a Sahitya Akademi Award for his autobiography in Marathi, Chaar Nagarantale Maze Vishwa.