Press Release
Sept. 12 2022
Association of Asia-Pacific Physical Societies (AAPPS)
Division of Plasma Physics (AAPPS-DPP)

Subramanyan Chandrasekhar Prize of Plasma Physics– Professor Arnab Rai Choudhuri is selected as 9th (2022) Laureate –The Division of Plasma Physics (CEO: Mitsuru Kikuchi, Chair: Baonian Wan)
under the Association of Asia Pacific Physical Societies (President: Jun’ichi
Yokoyama) has selected Professor Arnab Rai Choudhuri of the IISc (Indian Instituteof Science), Bengaluru as the 9th (2022) Laureate of S. Chandrasekhar Prize of Plasma
Physics, which is awarded to scientist who have made seminal / pioneering
contributions in the field of plasma physics.
Citations
Arnab Rai Choudhuri：For the key role in developing the flux transport solar dynamo
model of the 11-year sunspot cycle, and for using this model to provide theoreticalexplanations of many solar phenomena, as well as the first successful dynamobased prediction of a sunspot cycle.
Contact points：
AAPPS-DPP Association Inc. : Representative Director and CEO, Mitsuru Kikuchi, TEL: +81-80-1115-3482
Vice Chair for Solar/Astro Plasma Physics: Ryoji Matsumoto, http://www.astro.phys.s.chiba-u.ac.jp/~matumoto/index.html

AAPPS-DPP Homepage Address：http://aappsdpp.org/AAPPSDPPF/index.html

Certificates of 2022 S. Chandrasekhar Prize of Plasma Physics
Certificate and medal will be virtually given at the 6th Asia-Pacific Conference on Plasma Physics(AAPPS-DPP2022 online e-conference) Oct. 9-Oct 14, 2022.
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Press Release

On the achievements of Professor Arnab Rai Choudhuri
Born in Kolkata in 1956, Arnab Rai
Choudhuri obtained his BSc and MSc respectively
from Presidency College, Kolkata, and Indian
Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Then he went tograduate school at the University of Chicago, where
he received the Valentine Telegdi Prize for topping
the Physics Candidacy Examination and worked
under the supervision of Prof. E.N. Parker, obtaining
his PhD in 1985. He joined the faculty of Indian
Institute of Science in 1987 and retired recently fromthere as Professor.
Choudhuri has studied MHD processes inProf. Arnab Rai Choudhuri
different astrophysical systems – especially the Sun.
His early simulations on the formation of sunspots by the buoyant rise of magnetic flux
tubes from the solar interior to the surface showed how bipolar sunspots form on thesolar surface (D’Silva & Choudhuri 1993). These simulations showed that themagnetic field in the solar interior has to be much stronger than what was expectedfrom the αΩ dynamo model popular at that time. This led to the formulation of a new
type of dynamo model: the flux transport dynamo model. The paper by Choudhuri,Schüssler & Dikpati (1995) is regarded as the foundational paper of this model.
Choudhuri has also been involved in understanding within the framework of this model
how the irregularities in the sunspot cycle arise. His group made the first successful
dynamo-based prediction of a sunspot cycle before its onset (Choudhuri, Chatterjee &Jiang 2007), for cycle 24 which reached its peak around 2014, and provided acomprehensive model of grand minima like the Maunderminimum during 1645–1715 when sunspots were rarely
seen (Choudhuri & Karak 2012).
Passionately interested in teaching, Choudhuri is theauthor of two graduate textbooks – The Physics of Fluids
and Plasmas: An Introduction for Astrophysicists (1998,Cambridge University Press) and Astrophysics forPhysicists (2010, Cambridge University Press) used inmany universities around the world. He is deeply interested
in the history of science and is currently involved in a studyof how research in modern physics began in colonial India.
His total citation is ~4100 in Web of Science with Hindex 34 (average per item ~55) and is ~6700 in Google
Scholar with H-index 40 (17 items having more than 100
Japanese translation of his book citations).
He is an elected Fellow of Indian National
Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences and The
World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). He has been an Alexander von Humboldt
Fellow and a J.C. Bose National Fellow.
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Appendix:
1. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Astrophysicist born in India. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his theoreticalstudies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of stars, including theChandrasekhar limit on the mass of white dwarf stars. His research covered several broad areas, asseen from his texts, which included Principles of Stellar Dynamics (1942), Hydrodynamics andHydromagnetic Stability (1981), and an influential book based on his lecture notes in Plasma
Physics (1960).

2. AAPPS: Association of Asia-Pacific Physical Societies（HP: http://www.aapps.org/main/index.php）
The Association of physical societies in the Asia Pacific region founded by the Nobel Laureate inPhysics C.N. Yang, and Professor Akito Arima in 1983. The AAPPS held the 12th Asia PacificPhysics Conference under the president (at that time) Shoji Nagamiya in Makuhari, Japan. The
current president is Professor Jun’ichi Yokoyama, the University of Tokyo, Japan.

3. AAPPS-DPP: Division of Plasma Physics, AAPPS（HP : http://aappsdpp.org/AAPPSDPPF/index.html ）The first division under the AAPPS based on the success of the plasma physics program in theAPPC-12. This division was formed in January 2014 based on the recommendation of Professor
Nagamiya at the AAPPS council. From Nov 28, 2018, AAPPS-DPP becomes legal entity
http://aappsdpp.org/DPPhoujin/index.html .

4. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Prize of Plasma Physics
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Prize of Plasma Physics is a top plasma physics prize founded by
the AAPPS-DPP in July 2014 and is endorsed by AAPPS. This prize is given to a plasma physicist
annually for pioneering and/or seminal contribution to plasma physics. The prize recipients were
Professor S. Ichimaru (2014), Professor P. Kaw (2015), Professor D. Melrose (2016), Professors
C.Z. Cheng and Lou C. Lee (2017), Professor Toshiki Tajima (2018), Professors Liu Chen andKazunari Shibata (2019), Professor Hyeon Park (2020), Professor Taik Soo Hahm (2021)(http://aappsdpp.org/AAPPSDPPF/prizetable.html).
The 2022 Selection Committee composed of leading plasma physicists in Asia-Pacific region.
Chairman : Professor Wonho Choe (Korea Advanced institute of Science and Technology)
Members : Professor Liu Chen (Zhejiang University)
Professor Yutong Li (Institute of Physics, CAS)
Professor Yasuaki Kishimoto (Kyoto University)
Professor Kanya Kusano (Nagoya University)
Professor Donald Melrose (University of Sydney)
Professor Iver Cairns (University of Sydney)
Professor Rajaraman Ganesh (Institute for Plasma Research)
Professor Ravindra Kumar (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research)
Professor Lou-Chuan Lee (Academia Sinica)
Professor Kwo Ray Chu (National Taiwan University)
Professor Hyyong Suk (Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology)
Professor Yong-Su Na (Seoul National University)3