Wadia Spenta Rustom

Wadia is the Founding Director of the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS) of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Bangalore, where he is the Infosys Foundation Homi Bhabha Chair Professor. He attended St. Mary's High School in Mumbai, graduated with a BSc from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, a MSc from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (1973). He graduated with a PhD in physics from the City University of New York (1978) under the guidance of Bunji Sakita. From 1978-82 he was at the Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, where he was mentored by Yoichiro Nambu. In 1982 he joined the faculty of TIFR. His main scientific contribution is in elementary particle physics, quantum gravity and string theory. He is the recipient of the 1995 ICTP Prize and the 2004 TWAS Prize in Physics. He is a Fellow of all the Science Academies of India, a Distinguished Alumnus of St Xavier's College, Mumbai, a recipient of the J. C. Bose Fellowship of the Govt of India and a recipient of the Excellence Award of the TIFR Alumni Association.