Physicist E C G Sudarshan, who missed Noble Prize 9 times, dies at 86

The cremation of eminent Indian-American theoretical physicist, EC George Sudarshan who passed away on Sunday in Austin, Texas will be held on Thursday.

According to the family sources and close friends, Sudarshan, 86, died of natural causes. He is survived by his wife Bhamathi Sudarshan and two children.

The cremation services will be held in Austin, Texas on Thursday.

Sudarshan had been teaching as a professor at University of Texas for over 40 years.

He served as Honorary Advisory Council Member of Houston Sri Meenakshi Temple. He was associated with the temple from 1977.

Sudarshan, an outstanding theoretical physicist, was born in Kottayam, Kerala, India, in 1931. The professional career of Sudarshan spans five decades.

He discovered the V - A theory of weak interactions while working on his PhD thesis under the late Robert E. Marshak.

He has made remarkable discoveries in many fields of physics, including quantum optics, tachyons, quantum Zeno effect, non-invariance groups, positive maps of density matrices, quantum computation, etc. His contributions include also relations between east and west science, philosophy and religion.

In 2007, the Indian government recognised and awarded the physicist with the second highest civilian award, Padma Vibhushan.

He was also awarded the Dirac Medal in 2010, which is known to be given out to scientists who have made substantial contributions in theoretical physics, computational chemistry and mathematics.

The renowned physicist was even recommended for the Nobel Prize nine times but never awarded.