doctoral_advisor death_place death_date birth_place fields workplaces birth_date known_for article_title name alma_mater
c. v. raman oxford , england 28 may 1969 calcutta , india physicist university of mysore oxford university 09 february 1934 geometric phase s. pancharatnam
 shivaramakrishnan pancharatnam nagpur university raman research institute
s. pancharatnam

shivaramakrishnan pancharatnam -lrb- 1934 -- 1969 -rrb- was an indian physicist who did significant work in the field of optics .
he is noted for his discovery of a type of geometric phase sometimes known as pancharatnam phase for polarized beams passing through crystals .
he was born in calcutta in west bengal , india in 1934 .
he was elected a fellow of the indian academy of sciences at the early age of 25 .
he was a reader at the department of studies in physics , university of mysore from 1961-1964 .
from 1964 until his death in 1969 at the age of 35 he was a research fellow of st catherine 's college , oxford , working in association with george william series .
his publications for this period were mainly concerned with the theory of effects found in experiments on optical pumping , e.g. double refraction in a gas due to spin alignment .
professor series has written an introduction to the life and work of pancharatnam .
he also prepared , for the proceedings of the royal society , the last three papers from notes left by pancharatnam .
in 1956 , pancharatnam was studying interference figures produced by light waves in crystal plates , under his advisor c. v. raman , when he discovered the properties of what is now known as the geometric phase , and which predated michael berry 's work on the topic from 1983 .
