Ep. 19 : Conversation with M.S. Santhanam - Complex System Physicist and Columnist

I am delighted to introduce you to my guest on this episode : M S Santhanam “Website of M. S. Santhanam.” Accessed September 5, 2023. http://sites.iiserpune.ac.in/~santh/. Santhanam is a physicist and a professor in dept. of physics at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune He is a theoretical physicist, and his research interest include a variety of topics including chaos and nonlinear dynamics, quantum chaos, quantum computation and machine learning, statistical physics, complex networks, extreme events and complex systems. In this episode we discussed - his biography - on how he developed interest in physics - his experience of studying at Hyderabad university - the ecosystem of the university - he also tells us about his experience on learning and doing research in Quantum classical correspondence, extreme event, data analysis leading to machine learning, nonlinear dynamics and complex systems - We discussed importance of physics and it role in society and how academics can contribute towards betterment of society - There is also an excellent segment in Tamil, in which Santhanam describes his research with an interesting analogy. - We also discussed about his interest in writing about science-society interface, and about politics - Santhanam wonderfully combines intuitive thinking of physics, with computation approaches to study many interesting problems in complex systems, and he elaborates on this aspect with excellent clarity - Santhanam and I work in the same department, and I have always found discussion with him both illuminating and interesting. I continue to learn a lot from him. - I am sure, all of you will enjoy this discussion. Listen...as we humanize science... References : - “M. S. Santhanam - IISER Pune.” Accessed September 5, 2023. https://www.iiserpune.ac.in/research/department/physics/people/faculty/regular-faculty/m-s-santhanam/329. - “M. S. Santhanam’s Articles in News Media.” Accessed September 5, 2023. http://sites.iiserpune.ac.in/~santh/pubs.html#secgeneral. - Pal, Ritam, Aanjaneya Kumar, and M. S. Santhanam. “Depolarization of Opinions on Social Networks through Random Nudges.” arXiv, February 24, 2023. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2212.06920. - Physical Research Laboratory. “Home Page.” Accessed September 5, 2023. https://www.prl.res.in/prl-eng/home. - Santhanam, M. S., Sanku Paul, and J. Bharathi Kannan. “Quantum Kicked Rotor and Its Variants: Chaos, Localization and Beyond.” Physics Reports, Quantum kicked rotor and its variants: Chaos, localization and beyond, 956 (April 22, 2022): 1–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physrep.2022.01.002. - “University of Hyderabad.” Accessed September 5, 2023. https://uohyd.irins.org/.