Padma Kant Shukla

Padma Kant Shukla (CorrFRSE, FInstP, FAPS, AFTWAS) (7 July 1950 – 26 January 2013) was a distinguished Professor and first International Chair of the Physics and Astronomy Department of Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany. He was also the director of the International Centre for Advanced Studies in Physical Sciences at Ruhr-University Bochum. He held a PhD in physics from Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India and a second doctorate in Theoretical Plasma Physics from Umeå University in Sweden.

Personal background
Padma Kant Shukla was born in the village Tulapur (near Chunar district Mirzapur) near Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India and was educated there. After his PhD in physics from Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India at the age of 22, he moved to Umeå University, Sweden in January 1972, and obtained his second doctorate degree in Theoretical Plasma Physics there in 1975. He has lived in Bochum and worked at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany since January 1973, becoming a German Citizen in 1993. During his marriage life with wife Ranjana Shukla he had three sons.

Educational background
Shukla has received honorary doctorates from the Prasidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow) and the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, a fellow of the Institute of Physics (UK), and a corresponding fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (Scotland, UK), a foreign member of the Physics Class of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, and an associate fellow/member of the World Academy for the Advancement of Sciences in the Developing World (Trieste, Italy). He has been awarded the 2005 American Physical Society Dweight Nicholson Medal for the Human Outreach through Physics, a 2011 APS Outstanding Referee, and is recipient of the 2006 Gay-Lussac-Humboldt-Prize from the French Ministry of Education and Research. He is the first laureate of the 22nd Khwarizmi International Award from the IROST, Iran.


 * 1975 PhD in theoretical plasma physics, Umea University, Umea, Sweden
 * 1972 PhD in physics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India
 * 1969 MSc in physics, Agra University, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
 * 1967 BSc in physics, mathematics & chemistry, Agra University, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India

Professional background
Shukla has been a faculty member in the Physics and Astronomy Department at Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany since January 1973, where he is a Distinguished Physics Professor and holds an International Chair and Directorship of the International Centre for Advanced Studies in Physical Sciences at Ruhr-University Bochum.

Shukla holds an adjunct professorship of engineering sciences at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA; an adjunct physics professorship at the Department of Physics & Astronomy, Delhi University, India; visiting professorships at the Department of Physics, Umeå University, Sweden; and at the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA) Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland (UK). He holds an invited full professorship at GoLP/Centre for Plasma Physics and Nuclear Fusion, Instituto Superior Technico, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal; an honorary professorship at the School of Chemistry and Physics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa..

He is a world-renowned theoretical plasma physicist, with wide-ranging research interest in multidisciplinary sciences including basic and nonlinear physics, nonlinear geophysical flows, atmospheric physics and environmental sciences, soft-condensed matter physics and matter wave solitons, high-energy density physics, nonlinear phenomena in quantum systems, plasma astrophysics and neutrino-plasma physics, plasma-based high-energy charged particle acceleration, intense photon-photon and photon-plasma interactions, and fusion physics. He is famous for his international leadership in physical sciences.

He has published extensively (70 review papers and 1450 papers in more than sixty journals, including Nature, Nature Physics, Reviews of Modern Physics, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review, Physics of Plasmas, Physics Letters A, receiving over 21,200 citations, with the Hirsch Index=62) on various aspects of theoretical and computational plasma physics, as well as discovered numerous novel phenomena involving wave-wave and wave-particle interactions in physical sciences.

He has coauthored the textbook, Introduction to Dusty Plasma Physics, and edited or co-edited 15 books and several (18) Special Issues of various journals. He is the discoverer of the dust acoustic wave in dusty plasmas and novel attractive force between ions at atomic dimensions in quantum plasmas. He has more than 30 years of experience in committee work both at national and international levels.

Since 1989, Shukla has been a co-organizer/director of the plasma physics activities (Summer Colleges and Workshops in Plasma Physics) at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (AS-ICTP), Trieste (Italy), Chairman of the International Advisory Committee of the International Conference on Physics of Dusty Plasmas (ICPDP), and International Advisory Committee member of the International Congress on Plasma Physics (ICPP). He has presented over 130 keynote, plenary, tutorial, and topical lectures in international conferences, including European Physical Society, American Physical Society, ICPP, ICPDP, Summer Colleges and Workshops at the AS-ICTP.

Shukla has significantly contributed to education, as well as to the development of basic and applied physics worldwide; specifically, in developing countries across the globe. He has served (2008-2011) as Chairman of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) C.16 Commission on Plasma Physics, and serving (since 2008) as Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Emerging Nations Science Foundation (Trieste, Italy), as Editor-in-Chief of J. Plasma Physics (Cambridge University Press, UK), as editorial board member of Physical Review E (American Physical Society), as associate editor of Physics of Plasmas (American Institute of Physics), and as International Advisory Panel of Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion (Institute of Physics, Bristol, UK). He is reviewer for scientific projects from the US National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy, US NASA, European Science Foundation (ESF), Israeli Science Foundation (ISF), British Science Council, and acts as referees for the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which awards Fellowships and Prizes. He acts as referees for more than seventy International Physics and Engineering Journals.

Significant publications

 * P. K. Shukla and B. Eliasson, "Novel attractive force between ions in quantum plasmas", "Phys. Rev. Lett." '"108"', 165007 (2012) (5 pages); Erratum: PRL 108, 219902(E) (2012); PRL 109, 019901 (E) (2012) (1 page).
 * I. Zeba, M. E. Yahia, P. K. Shukla, W. M. Moslem, Electron–hole two-stream instability in quantum semiconductor plasma with exchange-correlation effects; Physics Letters A 376 (2012) 2309–2313.
 * P. K. Shukla and B. Eliasson. "Nonlinear collective interactions in quantum plasmas with degenerate electron fluids", "Rev. Mod. Phys." 83, 885-906 (2011). SCI=58 (Source Google Scholar).
 * P. K. Shukla and K. Avinash. "Phase coexistence and a critical point in ultracold-neutral plasmas", "Phys. Rev. Lett." 107, 135002 (2011) [5 pages].
 * P. K. Shukla and B. Eliasson. "Nonlinear aspects of quantum plasma physics", "Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk" 180, 55–82 (2010) [Eng. Translation]: Phys. Usp 53, 51–76 (2010). SCI=159 (Source Google Scholar).
 * P. K. Shukla and B. Eliasson. "Fundamentals of dust-plasma interactions", Rev. Mod. Phys. 81, 25–44 (2009). SCI=213 (Source Google Scholar).
 * P. K. Shukla. "A new spin in quantum plasmas", Nature Phys. 5, 92–93 (2009). SCI=58 (Source Google SCholar).
 * D. Shaikh and P. K. Shukla. "Fluid turbulence in quantum plasmas", Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 125002 (2007) [4 pages]. SCI=72 (Google Scholar).
 * P. K. Shukla and B. Eliasson. "Formation and dynamics of dark solitons and vortices in quantum electron plasmas", Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 245001 (4pp) (2006). SCI=156 (Source Google Scholar).
 * P. K. Shukla, I. Kourakis, B. Eliasson, M. Marklund and L. Stenflo. "Instability and evolution of nonlinearly interacting water waves", Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 094501 (2006) [4 pages]. SCI=64 (Source Google Scholar).
 * B. Eliasson and P. K. Shukla. "Formation and dynamics of coherent structures involving phase-space vortices in plasmas", Phys. Rep. 422, 225–290 (2006). SCI=60 (Source Google Scholar).
 * M. Marklund and P. K. Shukla. "Nonlinear collective effects in photon-photon and photon-plasma interactions", Rev. Mod. Phys. 78, 591–640 (2006). SCI=407 (Source Google Scholar).
 * D. Sundkvist, V. Krasnoselskikh, P. K. Shukla, A. Vaivdas, M. Andre, S. Buchert and H. Reme. "In situ multi-satellite detection of coherent vortices as a manifestation of Alfvenic turbulence", Nature (London) 436, 825–828 (2005).SCI= 72 (Source Google Scholar).
 * D. Jovanovic and P. K. Shukla. "Magnetic reconnection mediated by lower-hybrid, phase-space vortices", Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 015002 (2004) [4 pages].
 * P. K. Shukla. "Nonlinear waves and structures in dusty plasmas", "Phys. Plasmas" 10, 1619-1627 (2003). SCI=72.
 * P. K. Shukla and A. A. Mamun. "Solitons, shocks, and vortices in dusty plasmas", "New J. Phys." 5, 17.1--17.37 (2003). SCI=172 (Source Google Scholar).
 * P. K. Shukla and A. A. Mamun. "Introduction to Dusty Plasma Physics", IoP, Bristol, UK (2002). SCI=1250 (Source Google Scholar).
 * P. K. Shukla. "A survey of dusty plasma physics", Phys. Plasmas 8, 1791–1803 (2001). SCI=286 (Source Google Scholar).
 * P. K. Shukla. "Parametric instability of dust lattice waves in a turbulent plasma sheath", Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 5328–5330 (2000). SCI=32.
 * D. Jovanovic and P. K. Shukla. "Nonlinear model for coherent electric-field structures in the magnetosphere", Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 4373–4376 (2000). SCI=32.
 * Y. Nakamura, H. Bailung and P. K. Shukla. "Observation of ion-acoustic shocks in a dusty plasma", Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 1602–1605 (1999). SCI=312 (Source Google Scholar).
 * P. K. Shukla, R. Bingham, H. A. Bethe, J. M. Dawson, and J. S. Su. "Nonlinear scattering of neutrinos by plasma waves: a ponderomotive force description", Phys. Lett. A 260, 107–110 (1996). SCI=71 (Source Google Scholar).
 * A. A. Mamun, R. A. Cairns and P. K. Shukla. "Solitary potentials in dusty plasmas", Phys. Plasmas 3, 702–706 (1996). SCI=148 (Source Google Scholar).
 * P. K. Shukla and N. N. Rao. "Coulomb crystallization in colloidal plasmas with streaming ions and dust grains", Phys. Plasmas 3, 1770–1772 (1996). SCI=80.
 * A. A. Mamun, R. A. Cairns and P. K. Shukla. "Effects of vortex-like and nonthermal ion distributions on nonlinear dust acoustic waves", Phys. Plasmas 3, 2610–2614 (1996). SCI=223.
 * S. I. Popel, S. V. Vladimirov and P. K. Shukla. "Ion-acoustic solitons in an electron-positron-ion plasma", Phys. Plasmas 2, 716–720 (1995). SCI=205.
 * P. K. Shukla, G. Birk and Bingham. "Vortex streets driven by sheared flow and applications to black aurora", Geophys. Res. Lett. 22, 671–674, (1995). SCI=71.
 * R. A. Cairns, A. A. Mamun, R. Bingham, R. Bostrom, R. O. Dendy, C. M. C. Nairns and P. K. Shukla. "Electrostatic solitary structures in nonthermal plasmas", ''Geophys. Res. Lett.' 22, 2709–2712 (1995). SCI=229.
 * M. Nambu, and S. V. Vladimirov and P. K. Shukla. "Attractive forces between charged particulates in plasmas", Phys. Lett. A 203, 40–42 (1995). SCI= 192 (Source Google Scholar).
 * P. K. Shukla and R. K. Varma. "Convective cells in nonuniform dusty plasmas", Phys. Fluids B 5, 236–237 (1993). SCI=87.
 * R. K. Varma, P. K. Shukla and V. Krishan. "Electrostatic oscillations in the presence of grain charge perturbations in dusty plasmas", Phys. Rev. E 47, 3612–3616 (1993). SCI=306 (Source Google Scholar).
 * P. K. Shukla. "Low-frequency modes in dusty plasmas", Physica Scripta 45, 504–507 (1992). SCI=212 (Source Google Scholar).
 * P. K. Shukla and V. P. Silin. "Dust ion-acoustic wave", Physica Scripta 45, 508 (1992). SCI=641 (Source Google Scholar).
 * P. K. Shukla, M. Y. Yu and R. Bharuthram. "Linear and nonlinear dust drift waves", J. Geophys. Res. 96, 21343–21346 (1991). SCI=129 (Source Google Scholar).
 * N. N. Rao, P. K. Shukla and M. Y. Yu. "Dust-acoustic waves in dusty plasmas", Planet. Space Sci. 38, 543–546 (1990). SCI=12978(via Google Scholar).
 * P. K. Shukla, N. N. Rao, M. Y. Yu and N. L. Tsintsadze. "Relativistic nonlinear effects in plasmas", Phys. Rep. 138, 1–149 (1986). SCI=327 (Source Google Scholar).
 * R. Bharuthram and P. K. Shukla. "Large amplitude ion-acoustic double layers in a double Maxwellian electron plasma", Phys. Fluids 29, 3214–3218 (1986). SCI=70.
 * P. K. Shukla and L. Stenflo. "Nonlinear propagation of electromagnetic ion-cyclotron Alfven waves", Phys. Fluids 28, 1576–1578 (1985). SCI=62.
 * P. K. Shukla, M. Y. Yu, H. U. Rahman and K. H. Spatschek. "Nonlinear convective motion in plasmas", Phys. Rep. 105, 227–228 (1984). SCI=81 (source Google Scholar).
 * G. Murtaza and P. K. Shukla. "Nonlinear generation of electromagnetic waves in a magnetoplasma", J. Plasma Phys. 31, 423–436 (1984). SCI=62.
 * P. K. Shukla and L. Stenflo. "Nonlinear propagation of electromagnetic waves in magnetized plasmas", Phys. Rev. A 30, 2110–2112 (1984). SCI=71.
 * P. K. Shukla and J. M. Dawson. "Stimulated Compton scattering of hydromagnetic waves in the interstellar medium", Astrophys. J. Lett. 276, L49–L51 (1984). SCI=12.
 * R. P. Sharma and P. K. Shukla. "Nonlinear effects at the upper-hybrid layer", Phys. Fluids 26, 87–99 (1983). SCI=63.
 * P. K. Shukla, H. U. Rahman and R. P. Sharma. "Alfven soliton in a low-beta plasma", J. Plasma Phys. 28, 125–127 (1982). SCI=64.
 * P. K. Shukla. "Modulational instability of whistler-mode signals", Nature (London) 274, 874–875 (1978). SCI=26.
 * M. Y. Yu and P. K. Shukla. "Finite amplitude solitary Alfven waves", Phys. Fluids 21, 1457–1458 (1978). SCI=68.
 * P. K. Shukla and M. Y. Yu. "Exact solitary ion acoustic waves in a magnetoplasma", J. Math. Phys. 19, 2506–2508 (1978). SCI=104 (source Google Scholar).

Academic appointments

 * March 2012: Adjunct Physics Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Delhi University, India
 * July 2011: Adjunct Professor of Engineering Sciences, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California San Diego (UCSD), La Jolla, California, USA
 * July 2010: RUB International Chair (Distinguished Physics Professor), Faculty of Physics & Astronomy, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
 * January 1973: Faculty member (Hon. Professor of Theoretical Physics, since 2006) in the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
 * 2007: Honorary Professor at School of Physics, University of KwaZulu Natal (UKN), Durban, South Africa
 * 2006: Visiting professor at the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA), Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
 * 2008: Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Emerging Nations Science Foundation, Trieste, Italy
 * 2008-2011: Chairman of IUPAP C.16 Commission on Plasma Physics
 * 2006–2008: Secretary of IUPAP C.16 Commission on Plasma Physics
 * 2004: Member of IoP Panel for electing IoP Fellows, IoP (London), UK
 * 2004: Invited Full Professor, Laser and Plasma Group/IPFN, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal
 * 2004: Fellow of STFC Center for Fundamental Physics, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK
 * 2002-2011: Elected Member of the IUPAP C.16 Commission on Plasma Physics
 * 2000: Visiting professor at the ECE Dept. of UCSD La Jolla, California, US for one month each year
 * 1999: Associate Member of the Max-Planck Institut fuer extraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany
 * 1997: Visiting professor, Department of Physics, Umea University, Umea, Sweden

Professional distinctions and honors

 * 2013: Hind Rattan (The Jewel of India) Award of India
 * 2011 An APS Outstanding Referee, American Physical Society, USA
 * 2010 Star Dust Award from the International Dusty Plasma Physics Community
 * 2009 Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
 * 2009 Doctor Honoris Causa degree from the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal
 * 2009 First Laureate of the 22nd Khwarizmi International Award from IROST, Iran
 * 2008 Foreign Member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences
 * 2007 Associate Fellow/Member of Physics Class of The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), Trieste
 * 2006 Foreign Member of Physics Class of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
 * 2006 Gay-Lussac-Humboldt-Prize from the French Ministry of Education and Research
 * 2005 APS Dwight Nicholson Medal for Human Outreach through Physics
 * 2005 Distinguished Guest (VIP) of the Abdus Salam ICTP, Trieste, Italy
 * 2005 ESA Certificate Award in Recognition of Outstanding Contribution to Cluster's Exploration of Geospace
 * 2004 Doctor Honoris Causa Degree from the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
 * 2002 Fellow of the Institute of Physics (London), UK
 * 2001 Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), USA
 * 1995 Japanese Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowship from Japan

Membership and professional services

 * Member of the AGU and APS (US), IoP (UK), Life Member of the Plasma Science Society of India, Member of IUPAP C.16 Commission on Plasma Physics, IoP panel
 * Member for electing IoP Fellows, Physics panel member for electing TWAS Fellows, and Associate Member of the COSPAR (Committee on Space Research)
 * Proposal Reviewer for NASA, DOE and NSF (US), ESF, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany), Israel Science Foundation, South African Science Foundation, British Research Council, Canadian Research Council, Swiss National Science Foundation; Reviewer for more than 60 scientific journals, including Nature Physics, PRL, PRE, PRA, PoP, GRL, JGR, NPG, ApJ, APL, EPL, PLA, PPCF, NJP, JPP, etc.
 * Co-organizer/director of many (more than 25) International Physics Conferences, as well as of Plasma Colleges & Plasma Workshops (e.g. at the Abdus Salam ICTP, Trieste, Italy) around the globe
 * Advisory Board and Program Committee members of many (more than 60) International Plasma Physics Conferences
 * External Examiners of many (more than 35) PhD theses in Europe, Africa & Asia
 * Associate Member of the Max-Planck Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik, Garching bei Munchen, Germany
 * Elected Member (1987–1995) of the Convent (Parliament) of Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, Germany

Editorial activities

 * Since 2005 editor-in-chief, Journal of Plasma Physics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK
 * Since 2012 associate editor, Physics of Plasmas, American Institute of Physics, New York, USA
 * Since 2012 editorial board member, Physical Review E, American Physical Society, New York, USA
 * 2004-2010 editorial board member, New J. Physics, Institute of Physics (IoP), Bristol, UK
 * Since 2008 international advisory panel, Plasma Physics Controlled Fusion, IoP, Bristol, UK
 * 2000–2008 editorial board member, Plasma Physics Controlled Fusion, IoP, Bristol, UK
 * 1999–2008 associate editor, IEEE Trans. Plasma Science, USA
 * 1992–2004 associate editor, Journal of Plasma Physics, Cambridge University Press, UK
 * 1993–1998 editorial advisory board member, Planetary and Space Sci., Pergamon Press, UK

Professional responsibilities, scientific productivity and scientific impact

 * Since 2010 Founding Director of International Centre for Advanced Studies in Physical Sciences, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
 * Since 1995 co-director of Plasma Physics Activities, Abdus Salam ICTP, Trieste, Italy
 * Since 2002 Member of the IAC of the International Congress on Plasma Physics
 * Since 1996 Chairman IAC of the International Conference on the Physics of Dusty Plasmas
 * Since 1995 Chairman of the International Topical Conference on Plasma Physics
 * Supervised 30 postdoctoral associates and 6 PhD students
 * 1450 publications in international peer-reviewed journals (e.g. 2 Nature; 1 Nature Physics; 39 Phys. Rev. Lett.; 120 Phys. Rev. A, B, D, E; 360 Phys. Fluids & Phys. Plasmas; 200 J. Plasma Phys.; 200 Phys. Lett. A; 65 AGU journals)
 * 70 Review Articles (e.g. 3 Phys. Rep., 3  Rev. Mod. Phys., 1 Phys. Usp.)
 * 150 contributions in many International Conference Proceedings
 * Textbook Introduction to Dusty Plasma Physics, P. K. Shukla and A. A. Mamun (IoP, Bristol, 2002)
 * Dust Plasma Interaction in Space, Ed. P. K. Shukla (Nova, NY, 2002)
 * Co-Editor: 14 books (9 AIP NY, 4 World Sci. Singapore,1 Elsevier), 14 Physica Scripta Topical Issues, and 3 Special Issues in Journals
 * Invited speaker (Keynote Speeches; Plenary, Tutorial and Topical Talks) at more than 130 International Conferences worldwide
 * Total Citations 1973-2011 (ISI-Web of Science):21.300+; without self-citation:15.600+, Hirsch (h)-index (h papers with h+citations):62 (via Web of Knowledge/Science)

Professional interests

 * Basic physics of low- and high-temperature plasmas, with applications to space and laboratory
 * Nonlinear quantum plasma physics
 * Nonlinear space and astroplasmas
 * Nonlinear processes in geophysical flows
 * Collective interactions in dusty plasmas
 * Intense laser-plasma interactions
 * Plasma based high-energy charged particle acceleration
 * Nonlinear photonics/optics