Prof. Arnab Rai Choudhuri is one of the world's leading scientists in the field of solar magneto-hydrodynamics. He has made fundamental contributions to the formation of sunspots and the generation of an 11-year solar cycle by the dynamo process. Currently, he serves as a Professor of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
Prof. Choudhuri received his bachelor's degree in Physics from the Presidency College, Calcutta University, in 1978. In 1980, he completed his masters in the same subject from IIT Kanpur. In 1985, he obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago under the guidance of Prof. E.N. Parker. From 1985 to 1987, he was a visiting scientist at the High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, U.S.A. In 1987, he joined the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore as a lecturer and continued to work there as a Professor with the Department of Physics. Prof. Choudhuri has recently been elected as a Fellow of 'The World Academy of Sciences' (TWAS) 2016 for making fundamental contributions towards the advancement of science in developing countries.
Prof. Choudhuri is a theoretical astrophysicist who primarily works on MHD problems related to the Sun though he has worked on other astrophysical systems such as AGNs, jets, accretion, pulsars as well. He is one of the originators of the flux transport dynamo model, which he used to make the first successful prediction of a solar cycle from a theoretical model. Most of his papers are written on the generation of solar magnetic fields by the dynamo process and the formation of sunspots by the buoyant rise of flux tubes. Together with his students, he has developed a code-named 'Surya' for solving the basic equations of solar dynamo theory. In 2005, he released the guide prepared for using this code to the public. He is an author of two books: The Physics of Fluids and Plasmas: An Introduction for Astrophysicists and Astrophysics for Physicists. One of his papers (Choudhuri, Chatterjee and Jiang 2007, PRL 98, 131103) was selected as the "Editors' Suggestion" in Physical Review Letters - one of the world's highest honors for a physics paper.
