Mani Lal Bhaumik is an Indian-born American physicist and a bestselling author.
Early life and his Studies
Bhaumik was born in 1931 in a small village in Siuri, Medinipore, West Bengal, India, and thrust into the vortex of the struggle for Indian independence. Education provided him a way out of poverty. He walked four miles barefoot to the nearest school, Kola Union High School, and endured famine, flood, and armed threat.As an impressionable teenager, Bhaumik was privileged to spend some time with Mahatma Gandhi in his Mahisadal camp. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Scottish Church College and an M. Sc. from the University of Calcutta. He won the attention of Satyendra Nath Bose (creator of the Bose–Einstein statistics) who encouraged his prodigious curiosity. Bhaumik became the first student to receive Ph.D. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in history when he received his Ph.D. in quantum physics in 1958.His thesis was on Resonant Electronic Energy Transfers, a subject he would have cause to use in his work with lasers.
His Research career
Receiving a Sloan Foundation Fellowship in 1959, Dr. Bhaumik came to the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) for post doctoral studies. In 1961, he joined the Quantum Electronics Division at Xerox Electro-Optical Systems in Pasadena and began his career as a laser scientist.
Concurrently, he taught Quantum physics and Astronomy at the California State University at Long Beach. In 1968, he was enlisted by the Northrop Corporate Research Laboratory, where he rose to become the director of the Laser Technology Laboratory and led a team that made contributions in research on excimer laser technology. One of the papers on this research was presented at the Denver, Colorado meeting of the Optical Society of America in May 1973.At this meeting, Dr. Bhaumik presented substantial evidence to demonstrate for the first time that an excimer laser could be efficient and powerful enough for practical utilization. The application of excimer lasers in Lasik eye surgery has resulted in vision correction in many cases. His significant contributions to the development of new and high power lasers merited his election by his peers to be a fellow of both the American Physical Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Dr. Bhaumik's current interest is in sharing with the public the astounding advances in quantum physics and cosmology and their implications for our lives, work, technology, and spiritual development. This he endeavors to do through books such as the internationally published Code Name God and The Cosmic Detective, articles, lectures, and TV programs like the award-winning Cosmic Quantum Ray. He is also keenly interested in research on the origin and the nature of consciousness and how that knowledge can be utilised in improving the quality of our existence.
Dr. Bhaumik has published over fifty papers in various professional journals and is a holder of a dozen laser-related U.S. patents. His latest paper, Unified Field—the Universal Blueprint? appeared in the February 2000 issue of the International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences. He has been invited to lecture all over the world, at forums including: Summer School on High-Power Gas Lasers, Capri, Italy 1975; International Symposium on Gas-Flow and Chemical Lasers, Belgium 1978; International Symposium on Gas Discharge Lasers, Grenoble, France 1979; Asoke Sarkar Memorial Lecture, Calcutta International Book Fair 2001; Institute of Culture, Calcutta, India 2006.
He is the official patron of the International Year of Astronomy.
Sloan Foundation Fellow, 1959
Elected fellow of the American Physical Society, 1976.
Elected fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for development of high power lasers and new laser systems, 1982.
Received honorary D.Sc. for lifetime academic achievement in 1995 from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
Received Mahatma Gandhi Humanitarian Award, 2005, from the Indian American Heritage Foundation
Received Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award, one of the most prestigious civilian awards given by the Government of India to honor an exceptionally successful and meritorious Indian residing abroad for his extraordinary contribution, 2010
Received the prestigious Padma Shri Award 2011 from Government of India for distinguished service in science and engineering.
Received Chaudhuri Award for extraordinary achievements in science by California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, May 4, 2013.
