Propagation of Multidimensional Nonlinear Waves and Kinematical Conservation Laws

PHOOLAN PRASAD worked in the Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, India. With over 52 years of experience, he is an Indian mathematician who specialised in partial differential equations and fluid mechanics. He held the distinguished Chair of Mysore Sales International Limited (MSIL) in the area of Physical Science, was the chairman of the department and a professor of super-time-scales before his retirement. Later, he was made honorary professor at the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE)—Raja Ramanna Fellow; Senior Scientist at the Indian National Science Academy (INSA); and Senior Scientist Platinum Jubilee Fellow at the National Academy of Sciences (NASI), India. In 1983, he was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology—India’s highest science award in the field of mathematical sciences. He is fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India; the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy. Professor Prasad started his career as a research fellow at the Department of Applied Mathematics at IISc, in 1965. Thereafter, he became a professor at IISc in 1977. At the same time, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Leeds in the U.K. (1970–72), the Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (1980–81) and visiting professor at many other universities including Cambridge University. He has also played an important role in the development of quality education in the field of mathematics from school education to research. He succeeded in assessing the basic properties of the equations of various physical phenomena, generalised these mathematical properties and then developed general theories to explain new results in the field of nonlinear 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, which was verified experimentally much later.