This lesson follows Roddam Narasimha, an Indian scientist who studied how smooth flow turns turbulent. It covers his training, his research, his years at the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), his honours and exam traps.
Contents
What should I know first about Narasimha?
Who was Roddam Narasimha?
Roddam Narasimha was an Indian aerospace scientist and fluid dynamicist. He was born on 20 July 1933 and brought up in Bengaluru. He died on 14 December 2020, at the age of 87.
Why do people remember him?
- He studied how smooth flow breaks into turbulence.
- He led the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) in Bengaluru.
- He led a major study of the Indian summer monsoon.
- He won both the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan.
Sources: Academy tribute, life, Caltech, the death, Physics Today obituary, the death.
How did he train as a scientist?
His path ran from Mysore to California.
What did he study in India?
His father taught physics in Bengaluru. He first thought of physics. He chose mechanical engineering and took his degree at the University of Mysore in 1953. On an Open Day he saw old Spitfire aircraft at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). That visit made him choose aeronautics.
What happened at IISc?
IISc says he joined its aeronautics department in 1953 for a two-year diploma. He worked on fluid flow under Satish Dhawan. The Academy says he finished the associate’s degree in 1957.
Why did he go to Caltech?
Dhawan inspired him to go to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). There he studied aeronautics under Hans Liepmann. His thesis, finished in 1961, was on rarefied gas dynamics. That is the flow of very thin gas, as around a space vehicle.
He came home in 1962 and joined IISc as an assistant professor.
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Sources: Academy tribute, training, IISc tribute, the training, Caltech, the doctorate.
What is a turbulent spot?
Orderly flow is called laminar. Churning flow is called turbulent. In between, the flow changes from one to the other. That change is called transition.
What did Narasimha add?
The Royal Society says his ideas on turbulent spots helped show how transition works.
A turbulent spot is a small patch of turbulence in a boundary layer. The boundary layer is the thin layer of flow next to a surface.
His ideas also covered the reverse change, called relaminarisation. Here turbulent flow goes back to an orderly state.
Which papers made his name?
In 1957 he wrote a paper on how often the flow is turbulent in the transition region.
In 1958 he and Dhawan published a second paper in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics. It built on earlier probability work. It explained why transition regions look alike.
The Academy says both papers are still among the most influential from Bengaluru.
Sources: Royal Society, the research, Academy tribute, the papers, Indian Academy of Sciences, the 1958 paper abstract.
Who were his two mentors?
Two teachers shaped him, one at each end of his training.
Who was Satish Dhawan to him?
Dhawan joined the IISc aeronautics department in 1951. He had earned his own doctorate at Caltech. Deccan Herald calls Narasimha his first student. Their joint paper appeared in 1958.
Who was Hans Liepmann?
Liepmann supervised both men at Caltech. He guided Dhawan’s doctorate first. Years later he guided Narasimha’s. So one Caltech teacher links the two scientists.
Who led the department?
The department chair at IISc in those years was O.G. Tietjens. The Academy says he was a student of Ludwig Prandtl.
Sources: Academy tribute, the mentors, Deccan Herald, the student.
What else did he study and build?
How did he study the Indian monsoon?
He came to see the monsoon as a major fluid-flow problem.
What did he set up?
In the mid-1970s a group at IISc began to study monsoons. In 1982 IISc set up the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences with Narasimha as its leader. He was also its convenor from 1982 to 1989.
What was MONTBLEX?
He conceived MONTBLEX, the Monsoon Trough Boundary Layer Experiment. IISc calls it the country’s first major attempt to understand the Indian summer monsoon. It was carried out in the Indo-Gangetic Plains in 1990.
Why did clouds matter?
He thought convective clouds were central to the monsoon. His group built cloud-like plumes in the laboratory. The data later gave a new formula for surface flux at low winds.
Sources: Academy tribute, the monsoon, IISc tribute, the monsoon.
What did he do at NAL?
NAL is in Bengaluru. Narasimha became its Director in 1984. He held the post until 1993.
What did NAL work on under him?
- The Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), now called Tejas.
- Advanced composite materials.
- Parallel computers.
- Civilian aircraft.
- Numerical models of the monsoon.
What was his own part in the LCA?
Deccan Herald says he played a key role in designing the LCA, Tejas. IISc says NAL oversaw its carbon composite wings and flight control. That same period saw India’s first parallel computer.
How did he change NAL?
The Academy says he moved NAL from good papers to projects with set goals. He steered it toward defence research and ISRO projects.
Sources: Academy tribute, NAL, IISc tribute, NAL, Deccan Herald, the Tejas role, Adviser’s office, the LCA.
What did he do after NAL?
His later posts turned toward science policy.
Which posts followed?
- NIAS: Second Director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), from 1997 to 2004.
- JNCASR: Chairman of the Engineering Mechanics Unit at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), from 2000 to 2014.
- Teaching: Professor of aerospace engineering at IISc, from 1962 to 1999.
- Advice: He served on the National Security Advisory Board and the Space Commission.
What happened at the Space Commission?
Deccan Herald reports that he resigned in February 2012. It calls him the longest-serving member of the Commission.
Sources: Academy tribute, later posts, Maritime India profile, the posts, IISc tribute, the posts, Deccan Herald, the Commission.
Which academies chose him?
Many scientific bodies honoured his work.
Which memberships did he hold?
- Royal Society: Fellow, elected in 1992. It is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence.
- US National Academy of Engineering: elected in 1989.
- US National Academy of Sciences: foreign member from 2000.
- Indian academies: Fellow of all of them. He was President of the Indian Academy of Sciences from 1992 to 1994.
What did he start?
He created the academy journal Sadhana. He also backed Resonance, a journal born of his interest in higher education.
Sources: Royal Society, the election, Academy tribute, memberships, Caltech, the academies.
Which honours came his way?
Which honours did he win?
What are the main ones?
- Bhatnagar Prize: 1974, for engineering sciences.
- Padma Bhushan: 1987, India’s third-highest civilian award.
- Gujarmal Modi Award: 1990.
- Ramanujan Medal: 1998, from the Indian Science Congress.
- AIAA Fluid Dynamics Award: 2000.
- TWAS Trieste Science Prize: 2008.
- Padma Vibhushan: 2013, India’s second-highest civilian award.
- Nature mentoring award: 2019, for lifetime achievement.
How were the 2013 Padma awards announced?
On 26 January 2013, 108 Padma awardees were named: 4 Vibhushan, 24 Bhushan and 80 Shri. Narasimha was one of the four Vibhushan names.
Sources: Academy tribute, the honours, Deccan Herald, the honours, Peninsula Qatar report of 26 January 2013.
What did he do beyond the laboratory?
What did he write?
He published about 200 papers over some 65 years. He cared more for quality than quantity. He also wrote and edited books on metaphysics, consciousness and the history of Indic science.
How did he serve the country?
- He sat on the advisory council of two prime ministers.
- He held talks with the US National Academies on India’s nuclear programme and security.
- He helped set up the Ministry of Earth Sciences in New Delhi.
- He wrote a book with former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, on fluid mechanics and space technology.
What did he teach beyond class?
IISc credits him with the institute-wide fluid mechanics seminar. He also helped start the Asian Congress of Fluid Mechanics, in 1980.
Sources: Academy tribute, service, Adviser’s office, the book with Kalam, Deccan Herald, NIAS dialogues.
How do I revise Narasimha in one minute?
What should I remember about Narasimha?
What are the key points?
- Life: 20 July 1933 to 14 December 2020.
- Science: Turbulent spots, with papers in 1957 and 1958.
- Caltech: Doctorate in 1961 under Hans Liepmann.
- NAL: Director from 1984 to 1993, with the LCA among its projects.
- Royal Society: Elected a Fellow in 1992.
- Padma awards: Bhushan in 1987 and Vibhushan in 2013.
Sources: Academy tribute, key points, Royal Society, the summary, Caltech, the summary, Deccan Herald, the key points.
How do Narasimha questions appear in exams? Exam practice
What do examiners test about Narasimha?
What are the traps?
- IISc diploma. IISc says he joined in 1953 for a two-year diploma. The Academy gives 1957 for the associate’s degree. Follow the question’s source.
- NIAS. He was its second Director, not the first.
- Tejas. NAL worked on the LCA wings and flight control under him. Do not say NAL alone built the aircraft.
- Padma awards. Bhushan came in 1987 and Vibhushan in 2013.
- Academies. The Royal Society elected him in 1992. The US academies named him a foreign member.
- Mentors. Dhawan taught him at IISc. Liepmann supervised him at Caltech.
Sources: Academy tribute, exam points, IISc tribute, the diploma, Deccan Herald, the traps.
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Questions to think through
Why did a space race matter to his early research?
The Academy says rarefied gas flow matters around space vehicles. Russia had just launched Sputnik. The United States wanted its own satellite. His skill became valuable.
Why do two sources date his IISc training differently?
IISc speaks of a two-year diploma that began in 1953. The Academy speaks of a diploma followed by an associate’s degree, finished in 1957. Each source counts a different stage.
Why is the monsoon a fluid-flow problem?
The Academy says the release of latent heat affects how air mixes into a cloud. He built cloud-like plumes in the laboratory to study this.
Why did his tenure change NAL?
Under him the laboratory aimed at products with set deliverables. It worked with the defence research body and ISRO on real projects.
Sources: Academy tribute, Sputnik, IISc tribute, the early years.
MCQ on Roddam Narasimha
Test his work at NAL, turbulent spots, the Royal Society, his Caltech supervisor and the monsoon. Read the explanation after each answer.
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