Anant Vishnu Narlikar obtained BSc (1958) and MSc (1960) from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. After working for a year on crystal growth and imperfections with AR Verma at BHU, he moved to Cambridge University, UK (1961) from where he obtained PhD (1965). After four years of postdoctoral research on superconductivity, he returned to India (1969) as Professor and Head of Physics Department at Shivaji University, Kolhapur. He moved to Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Bombay (1972), and then to National Physical Laboratory (NPL), New Delhi (1973) where he carried out research on superconductivity for nearly 30 years. He was awarded ScD (1994) by Cambridge University. After his retirement from NPL (2000), he served as Lady Davis Visiting Professor in Israel, Wihuri Visiting Professor in Finland, Peterhouse Senior Visiting Fellow at Cambridge, Senior Visiting Fellow in Brazil and Visiting Professor at Peaking University in China. Presently he is INSA Senior Scientist at UDCSR, Indore.

Academic and Research Achievements: Narlikar entered the field of superconductors in 1961-62 as a graduate student at Cambridge and worked on structure-properties correlations in Type-II superconductors. His PhD work (Cambridge, 1965) formed the first thesis on Type-II superconductors ever produced in UK. He actively worked in experimental superconductivity for over 45 years with specific attention to superconductivity in relation to both extended and atomic level defects. His extensive work on low temperature superconductors brought out the importance of extended crystal defects like crystal dislocations in flux pinning and enhancing Jc. His equally exhaustive work on high Tc superconductors focused on the role of substitutional disorder in controlling Tc and related properties. He also worked extensively with SPM (STM/STS/AFM) technique for nanostructure investigation of high Tc superconductors, magnetic materials and fullerene-based compounds. He also published over 300 research papers in peer reviewed journals and edited more than 50 books on superconductors.

Other Contributions: Professor Narlikar has served as Member of the Asia Pacific Academy of Materials.

Awards and Honours: Professor Narlikar was conferred the HJ Bhabha Award by INSA, FIE Foundation Award for Science and Technology, AN Khosla Gold Medal and National Award by University of Roorkee, Superconductivity Award by MRSI (India), Chatterjee Gold Medal by Indian Cryogenics Council, and Tait Memorial Prize by Peterhouse, Cambridge. He was elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad and International Academy of Electro Technical Sciences, Moscow, Russia.