Ramesh Chandra Budhani received his BSc, MSc (Physics) and PhD (Physics) from Kumaon University Nainital, Allahabad University and Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, respectively. He was a research scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles (1984-87), and a Staff Scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York (1988-94). Since 1994 he has been on the faculty of IIT, Kanpur, and has held visiting positions at the Centre for Superconductivity Research, University of Maryland, CRISMAT Laboratory and Brookhaven Lab, France, and the Ecole Superieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles, France.

Academic and Research Achievements: After returning to India, Professor Budhani has set-up a state-of-the-art research facility to understand magnetism, superconductivity and electronic transport in two-dimensional structures consisting of epitaxial films, multilayers and superlattices. He has made pioneering contributions to the understanding of dissipation in high temperature superconductors. His research showed that one can achieve orders of magnitude enhancement in current carrying capacity of these superconductors if linear defects are created via heavy-ion-irradiation. This piece of work opened up an entirely new field of research. His latest works on superconductivity and magnetism in thin film heterostructures has revealed many fascinating aspects of two antagonistic order parameters. He has published many research papers in reputed journals and mentored several doctoral students.

Other Contributions: Budhani taught many elective courses in emerging areas of science and technology. He is the Co-Coordinator of the DST Centre on Nanoscience at IIT Kanpur. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of Pramana, a journal of physics and a member of the Science Education Panel of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore. He has contributed to research activities of the Inter-University Accelerator Centre (formerly Nuclear Science Centre), New Delhi as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee and accelerator users Committee.

Awards and Honours: Professor Budhani is a recipient of the Material Research Society of India Medal. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore and the National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad.