Chris Phillips

The Invisible Man

If you thought Harry Potter was the only one with an Invisibility Cloak, you've got another thing coming!  And for Sci-Fi fans, if you thought The Invisible Man was just an HG Wells character, Quark '13 will make you see otherwise! Dr. Chris Philips, better known as the Invisible Man, is a professor at the prestigious Imperial College, London where he is the Head of the Optoelectronics section. He is best known groundbreaking research work in Quantum Optical effects in Nanostructures. Besides Physics, Dr Philips also has a talent for showmanship; donning a cloak that rendered a part of him completely invisible in front of a projector by way of demonstrating his research work to an audience.  He also worked on the development of laser-based biomedical imaging techniques with Cancer clinicians and across the Life Sciences. Dr Philips has published more than 220 papers and enjoys jazz music and catamaran sailing .  His talk is a must-attend for all those who wish to pursue a career in Quantum Physics, or just see a man turn invisible. 

Archana Sharma

Senior Physicist, CERN 

Are you a die-hard Physics fan? Do you fantasize about working in for CERN? Of seeing the Large Hadron Collider right before you? Then Dr. Archana Sharma is one guest speaker you simply cannot afford to  miss! Dr. Archana Sharma is a senior physicist at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. She has been working on detectors and instrumentation since 1987. Some of these detectors are now in use in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Presently she has been working on the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment which aims at addressing the very basic and interesting question: What causes the occurence of mass in this universe? To interact with Dr. Sharma, find out about her interesting work, and know what mysteries of physics are most likely to be unraveled in the near future, do attend her guest lecture only at Quark 2013, Quantum Leaps. 

Vishy Poosala

Head,Bell Labs India

Dream of a future researching  Mobile Web Technology? Want to learn how to capitalize on the latest tech developments? Quark '13 brings you a guest lecturer who's been there - done that. Meet the man who combines Tech research with serial entrepreneurship - Dr.Viswanathan Poosala. Dr.Viswanathan Poosala, better known as Vishy Poosala, is the head of Bell Labs, India. Dr Vishy and his team have an exceptional record in delivering research breakthroughs and internal technology ventures, as well as helping to grow Alcatel-Lucent's business. Dr Vishy was the founder of Geopepper, an ingenious venture focusing on Geographic Messaging Services (GMS). He also helped develop AlertPedia in response to the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2005, a website which sends out thousands of valuable alerts every month. Dr Vishy specializes in a whole range of technical and business issues such as mobile applications, web technologies, IP/telecom networks and databases. He has achieved a tremendous amount of success in his professional career and the fact that he has published over 20 papers, and has 16 patents to his name is an apt reflection of his knowledge and expertise.

C P Ravikumar

Director, Texas Instruments

Are you fascinated by microelectronics and its multitude of applications? Do you dream of working in the worlds best Electronics firm? Well then you cannot afford to miss a lecture by the Head of University Relations at none other than Texas Instruments! Presenting an exclusive talk by Dr. C.P Ravi Kumar, this February at Quark '13. Dr. C. P. Ravi Kumar is the head of University Relations at Texas Instruments. He is also an adjunct faculty of IIT Madras and was a professor in the Electrical Engineering department of IIT Delhi. He has published over 200 papers in leading International conferences and journals. At Quark 2013, he is going to talk about low power, high performance and cost efficient embedded systems and how they can be desinged using Texas Instruments' embedded processors. This talk is a must attend for any electronics enthusiast who is looking to make a career out of it.

A S Kiran Kumar

Director SAC, ISRO

Have you always wondered what goes behind each multi-million dollar space mission? Do you dream of being part of one someday? We bring you the man behind some of India's most successful space missions - Dr. AS Kiran- speaking exclusively at Quark '13. A.S. Kiran is a distinguished scientist and the Director of ISRO's Space Application Centre at Ahmedabad. The SAC is a vitally important facility which specializes in designing and developing payloads for various Indian satellites, including the Chandrayaan missions. Under the leadership of Mr. Kumar, the SAC is engaged in many applications of space technology, such as Telecommunications, Remote Sensing, Meteorology and Satellite Navigation. Mr. Kumar has made an immense contribution to the design and development of Electro-Optical Imaging Sensors for airborne, Low Earth Orbit and Geostationary Orbit Satellites. He has worked on several big projects such as the Bhaskara TV payload and the latest Terrain Mapping Camera and Hyperspectral Imager payloads for the Chandrayaan-1 mission. Through the course of his distinguished career, Mr. Kumar has received numerous accolades such as the Indian Society of Remote Sensing Award, VASVIK award and the Bhaskara award among several others.

Ravi Gomatam

Director, ISIST

Do you believe Physics is more than just a mind-numbingly difficult Science subject? That it has more to do with the human subconsciousness than we know? Well, if you want to explore the fascinating inter-disciplinary intersection of Physics and Psychology, Dr. Gomantam's talk is a must attend for you. Ravi Gomatam is the Director of Bhaktivedanta Institute(Berkeley and Mumbai) and the newly formed Institute for Semantic Information Sciences and Technology (Berkeley and Mumbai). He is also Adjunct Professor at Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani, Rajasthan, India. He holds a Ph.D. in foundations of quantum mechanics, and has been working on changing the conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics. Gomatam is one of the pioneers in the field of consciousness studies, which is an emerging inter-disciplinary scientific field. He organized the First International Conference on the Study of Consciousness within Science� in January 1990 in San Francisco.