Vinod K. Wadhawan

Vinod Wadhawan got his M. Sc. degree in solid-state physics from the University of Delhi, and the Ph. D. degree in physics (X-ray crystallography) from the University of Bombay. All his scientific career was with the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India. After his retirement on superannuation, he was given the position of Raja Ramanna Fellow for about six years by the same Department. He was based at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, during this tenure. He is also a former Associate Editor of the journal PHASE TRANSITIONS (published by Taylor & Francis, U.K.). After doing his Ph. D. in crystallography, he did not stay in that field for long, and shifted his interest to ferroic materials. [It is a different matter that once a crystallographer, always a crystallographer!] In the year 2000 he published his book 'Introduction to Ferroic Materials', the first comprehensive and still the only definitive book on the subject. Ferroic materials, particularly multiferroics, find extensive applications in smart structures. This got Wadhawan interested in smart structures, and in 2007 he published the book 'Smart Structures: Blurring the Distinction Between the Living and the Nonliving'. From materials (ferroic materials) to structures (smart structures) to systems. Complex systems. Wadhawan wrote two books on complex systems: 'Complexity Science: Tackling the Difficult Questions We Ask About Ourselves and About Our Universe' (2010); and Understanding Natural Phenomena: Self-Organisation and Emergence in Complex Systems (2017). In between, he took time off to write a book about his work on symmetry: Latent, Manifest, and Broken Symmetry: A Bottom-up Approach to Symmetry, with Implications for Complex Networks' (2011). He is a committed science-populariser, and the latest book 'The 8-Fold Way of the Scientific Method: What science has been all about so far, and how it should be done now' has been written as a part of that crusade. He is also a blogger, and his blog is aptly named The Vinod Wadhawan Blog: Celebrating the Spirit of Science and the Scientific Method (https://vinodwadhawan.blogspot.com/). More recently, he has started producing a series of YouTube videos under the title ‘Wadhawan Educational Videos on Science’. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCTJvufWrgHs6G41HoakhRw Wadhawan believes that scientists should lead by example when it comes to promoting scientific temper in society. Their lives should reflect all that is worthwhile in the scientific profession, particularly intellectual integrity, curiosity, wonderment, rationality, skepticism, ready willingness to change one’s views if new information warrants that, and a deep sense of belonging and oneness with the Cosmos in general and Mother Earth in particular. They should also make an effort to become mentors to youngsters.