Prof Naresh Dadhich, former director of Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), passed away on Thursday at Beijing, China. He was 81.
Prof Dadhich was unwell for past few days and was hospitalised according to Dr Ajit Kembhavi, former director and Emeritus Professor at IUCAA.
“In fact, I briefly spoke with him early this evening. Then we got a call informing us his sad demise,” Dr Kembhavi added.
“Prof Dadhich was an internationally known general relativist and worked in various areas of gravitation theory. He has a great deal of research work to his credit, including the magnetic Penrose process. He worked right till the day before he passed away in Beijing, where he was visiting for a month for research collaboration and lectures,” Dr Kembhavi recalled.
Prof Dadhich was in the mathematics department of Pune University until he became one of the founder members of IUCAA (Jayant Narlikar and Dr Kembhavi were the other two). He was the second director to head IUCAA after its founder director Prof Jayant Narlikar.
Prof Dadhich became director of IUCAA in July 2003 and served till August 2009. Prof Dadhich’s research interests covered relativistic gravitation and its applications in astrophysics and cosmology and along with his colleagues has published over 100 scientific papers.
“He also had strong social convictions and great empathy for the underprivileged,” Dr Kembhavi added. Prof Dadhich is survived by his wife Sadhana, who is a well-known social worker, son and a daughter.
