Ramamurti Rajaraman

Rajaraman (1939-2025) was an emeritus professor of physics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, a former member of the Bulletin‘s Science and Security Board and of the Pugwash Council. He was formerly the co-chair of the International Panel on Fissile Materials and vice president of the Indian National Science Academy. He received his doctorate in theoretical physics in 1963 from Cornell University and then taught and conducted research at the Indian Institute of Science, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and as a visiting scientist at Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Princeton University, and elsewhere. In addition to his physics publications, he wrote widely on nuclear policy including capping India’s nuclear arsenal and her nuclear doctrine, the Indo-US Nuclear Deal, fissile material production in South Asia, and the radiological effects of nuclear weapons accidents.

Read: In memoriam: R. Rajaraman, scholar and citizen-scientist who informed public debate about nuclear weapons in South Asia and beyond