L Mahadevan was born in India and educated there through college. He then moved to the USA for graduate school, eventually getting his PhD at Stanford University. He started his independent career at MIT, and was then the inaugural Schlumberger Chair in Complex Physical Systems at Cambridge University and a Professorial Fellow at Trinity, before coming to Harvard University, where he has been since
His work attempts to understand motion and matter at the observable scale of ‘middle earth’, a playground of rich phenomena that are easy to observe, yet not always easy to explain. Areas of interest include the patterns of shape and flow of inanimate matter on scales ranging from the supramolecular to the planetary, and the dynamics of sentient living matter that can self-organize, perceive and act. In all cases, the aim is to get at a qualitative understanding using quantitative methods, and get at general principles, if there be such, from answers to specific questions. His publications range over such subjects as the shape and flow of fluids and soft materials, the morphogenesis of cells and organs, the movements of plants and animals, and the physiology and behaviou
Principal Investigator
L. Mahadevan, F.R.S.
Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics
Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Professor of Physics
lma&#;a&#;ev@g.ha&#;vard.e&#;&#;
Curriculum Vitae
Mahadevan was born and brought up in India. After a first degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, he moved to the USA, eventually getting his PhD from Stanford University. Following short stints at the University of Illinois-Urbana and the University of Chicago, in he started on the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In , he was elected a professorial fellow at Trinity and Schlumberger Chair of Complex Physical Systems at Cambridge University. At Harvard University since , he served as Chair/Co-Chair of Applied Mathematics from Since he has been Faculty Dean (together with Dr. Amala Mahadevan) of Mather House, one of 12 houses at Harvard College, living and learning with ~ students. Mahadevan is a MacArthur Fellow, a Simons Investigator, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Postdoctoral Fellows
R
The sublime in the mundane
Like the scientist, the minds of children are eternally and sometimes infernally curious about everything – the familiar is after all, still not yet so ! Alas, with time we all fall into the same trap, numbed by the mundane, searching for the sublime.
Watching Paint Dry by L. Mahadevan, The Harvard Undergraduate Research Journal
Somewhat reversing the trend towards reductionism, over the last few decades there has been a growing appreciation of the richness and variety of phenomena that arise from relatively few and fairly simple causes in the natural world. There is mystery and magic in the mundane. And what is more—it can be experienced, every day, everywhere by everyone. It is also a gentle reminder that science can be an engaging and enriching cultural, and ultimately human activity, not always a means to an end.
Ig Nobel Prize winner L. Mahadevan is profiled, by Steve Nadis, in Quanta magazine:
A Scientist Who Delights in the Mundane
Mahadevan uses mathematics and physics to explore commonplace phenomena, showing that many of the objects and behaviors we take for granted, and consequently give little thought to, are quite extraordinary upon closer examination&#; He even took on a process often dismissed as the dullest thing imaginable in his essay “Watching Paint Dry,” &#;
I’m not the kind of person who thinks some problems are bigger than others. In my mind, there is no hierarchy. What is frivolous and what is important seems like an irrelevant question. After all, nature does not care! &#;
I work on things that everyone can see and experience, but few care to think about deeply. As for the second question, does an artist, musician or writer think about applications? Why does science have to do so? It is human to be curious. That is enough, isn’t it?
But I should add that I’m not at all snooty about working on useful or practical things. I have patents on a few devices and algorithms, and just this year we developed potential protocols for mitigating the extreme costs of pa
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