Ep. 31: Conversation with Nirmal Raj - Hunting Dark Matter While Communicating Physics

Nirmal is an astroparticle theoretical physicist actively searching for dark matter and its constituents. He is also very passionate about communicating physics to a broad audience. He is an Assistant Professor at IISc, Bengaluru: http://nirmalraj.wikidot.com/ This episode discusses his intellectual journey from Engineering Physics at IIT to optics, condensed matter physics, particle physics, and dark matter. Through this journey, we learn how he developed an interest in this field and his experience communicating physics via newspaper articles. Listen...as we humanize science... References: “Nirmal Raj @ CHEP.” n.d. Accessed November 29, 2023. https://sites.google.com/view/nirmal-raj. “RESEARCH - Nirmal Raj.” n.d. Accessed December 1, 2023. http://nirmalraj.wikidot.com/physics. “Popular Publications - Nirmal Raj.” n.d. Accessed November 29, 2023. http://nirmalraj.wikidot.com/physics:popularpublications. “What Ho! - Nirmal Raj.” n.d. Accessed November 29, 2023. http://nirmalraj.wikidot.com/. “Nirmal Raj (@PhysicsNirmal) / X.” 2023. X (Formerly Twitter). January 20, 2023. https://twitter.com/PhysicsNirmal. Bramante, Joseph, Bradley J. Kavanagh, and Nirmal Raj. 2022. “Scattering Searches for Dark Matter in Subhalos: Neutron Stars, Cosmic Rays, and Old Rocks.” Physical Review Letters 128 (23): 231801. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.231801. “Daksha.” n.d. Accessed December 1, 2023. https://www.dakshasat.in/. “DEAP-3600 – Dark Matter Experiment Using Argon Pulse-Shape Discrimination.” n.d. Accessed December 1, 2023. https://deap3600.ca/. “Nature Unsolved - Nirmal Raj.” n.d. Accessed November 29, 2023. http://nirmalraj.wikidot.com/physics:unsolved. Raj, Nirmal. 2022. “Names from Greek Myth in Fundamental Physics.” arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2210.10623. Weinberg, Steven. 2003. “Four Golden Lessons.” Nature 426 (6965): 389–389. https://doi.org/10.1038/426389a.