Gopalakrishnarao Parthasarathy started his research career in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, by developing high-pressure and low temperature experimental facilities at Department of Physics, during 1980. Since then he has been involved in study of behaviour of materials at high pressures.
His significant contributions in mineral physics includes, the first simultaneous high-pressure and high-temperature experimental study on equation of state of Wadsleyite, the dominant silicate mineral in the transition zone of the Earth’s mantle. Detailed mineralogical investigations on the mantle derived rocks have led to discovery of the first occurrence of zemkorite- a Na-K-Ca-carbonate, providing evidence for mantle metasomatism ( chemical mixing of minerals at a depth of 300 to 400 km) Using powder X-ray diffraction and micro-Raman spectroscopic methods, Parthasarathy carefully estimated the inter- and intra-planar crystallite sizes and related the structural parameters for the graphite of the Dharwar craton, Eastern Ghats and Antarctica and developed an accurate and simple geothermometer for estimating peak metamorphic temperatures.
Parthasarathy has made significant contributions for terrestrial and planetary mineralogy. In the field of terrestrial mineralogy, he provided the first experimental evidence for the occurrence of natural fullerenes in a greenschist facies metamorphic rock. His discovery leads to the understanding of the enormous accumulation of carbon rich rocks in Karelia, now called the world wide Shunga event at 2060 Ma (million years ago) in the Earth’s history. This finding while providing evidence that fullerenes are formed in normal geological environments settled the debate that natural fullerenes are confined to special geological environments like bolide impact sites, large scale forest fire sites etc. Study of fullerenes in samples from Anjar led to the discovery of high-pressure and temperature phase of fullerenes in the bolide impact at the Cretaceous Tertiary boundary ( 65 Ma).
In the area of Planetary Mineralogy, he has contributed to the mineralogical and petrological classification of many new meteorites fall from India, like Kendrapara, Bhawad , and Kaprada also the first meteorite find from Thar Desert “ Ararki”. He also studied the thermodynamic properties of meteorites. In a detailed mineralogical and geochemical study of carbonados from Brazil and Central African Republic, he discovered the presence of TiN -osbornite, an extraterrestrial nitride and ultrahigh pressure form of diamond (lonsdaleite), revealing the extraterrestrial origin of carbonados. He found native iron believed to be result of pre 1.6 Ga meteorite impact in the Chaibasa shales from the Singhbhum craton and determined the residual stress in native iron using high pressure Mössbauer and electrical resistivity techniques.
He has been investigating high-pressure high-temperature electrical behaviour of nano-crystalline titanium based oxide minerals like ilmenite, geikielite, and other Ti-based oxide minerals that are relevant to Lunar Mineralogy, and He3 exploration in Lunar regolith . In Recent years he has been involved in making significant contributions in the area of terrestrial analogs of Martian surface soils and Lunar regolith, which involve geological filed work, sample collection and painstaking characterization using spectroscopic methods.
Dr. Parhasarathy has 200 research papers in peer-reviewed international journals and eight patents to his credit. His publications have the total citations of about 2000 and h index of 25. Most of his research output is from indigenously developed low cost instrumentation.
Dr. G. Parthasarathy, has obtained B.Sc.,(Physics) First Rank ; M.Sc.,(Physics) First Rank, from Annamalai university, Tamil Nadu, and PhD (Physics) (1984) from Indian Institute of Science, (IISc) Bangalore, Alexander von Humboldt Fellow , Germany 1987-88, Visiting Scientist , Cornell University, IthacaNY, USA during 1989-90. He was a faculty at IISC during 1984-89. Since 1990 he has been working for National Geophysical Research Institute, CSIR, Hyderabad and initiated a new program Mineral Physics. Presently he is a Chief Scientist working on Nanogeoscince, Physics and chemistry of Earth and Planetary Materials. Since 2003, he has been involved in studying the structure , composition and mineralogical aspects of planetary materials with the support of the PLANEX program of PRL, ISRO, Department of Space , Government of India. Presently he has been working on the terrestrial analogs of Martian and Lunar surface materials. He is a recipient of PRL Award 2003; National Mineral Award, Govt of India, 2003, MR Srinivasa Rao Award of the Geological Society of India 2008 for experimental Mineralogy and Petrology ; MRSI Medal from the Materials Research Society of India, 2007 for the contributions to the understanding of the earth and planetary materials, 2007, Andhra Pradesh Scientist Award for the year 2007; Decennial gold Medal of Indian Geophysical Union. He is a Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry, UK. Fellow of AP Academy of Sciences, Fellow of Geological Society of India, Felow of Indian Geophysical Union. Life Member of American Nano Society.
Editorial Member, Advances in Geological and Geophysical Engineering, USA, 2013; MAPAN, Journal of metrology society of India, since 2013; \"Journal of Advanced Research in Remote Sensing & GeoScience\"2014.Open Mineral Processing Journal, USA since 2010; International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics 2011; Open Journal of Geology, USA. 2011.
Life Member of Indian Society of Geomatics, 2012. Council member of Indian Sociaety of Geomatics; Member Geological Society of America, Member, Deep Carbon Observatory.
