Phoolan Prasad


Phoolan Prasad is an Indian mathematician who specialised in Partial differential equations, fluid mechanics. He was awarded in 1983 the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, the highest science award in India, in the mathematical sciences category. He is also a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy.

Early life and education

Prasad studied in Nalhati HP High School, Krishnath College Berhampore, received his B.Sc. from the Presidency College, Calcutta University and M.Sc. from Rajabazar Science College campus of Calcutta University followed by a Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1968.

Career

Prasad started his career as a lecturer in the Department of Applied Mathematics in 1967 at Indian Institute of Science, thereafter he became a Professor in 1977. Meanwhile, he also remained a Postdoctoral Fellow at Leeds University and Alexander von Humboldt Fellow.
Prasad has done some significant work in the area on non-linear hyperbolic equations. He succeeded in assessing the basic properties of the equations of various physical phenomena, generalized these mathematical properties and then used his theory to explain new results in the field of non-linear waves. He gave a proof of the existence of a new type of wave on the interface of a clear liquid and a mixture in a sedimentation process.
He is a Fellow of The National Academy of Sciences and continues to be a faculty member at the Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Science.