Born and raised in idyllic Mysore, India, Madappa Prakash earned his
Bachelor's and Master's degrees at the University of Mysore and his
Ph. D. degree in physics from the University of Bombay (1979), while
he was employed as a scientific officer at the Bhabha Atomic Research
Center, Bombay (1974-1981). His post-doctoral studies were conducted
at the Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark (1979-81) and the
State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York
(1982-86), where he taught and engaged in research as a research
professor and principal research scientist untill 2005. Prakash joined
Ohio University in 2005 as a full professor, in part to be the
``glue'' between the different research areas pursued by the Institute
of Nuclear and Particle Physics and the Astrophysics Institute
under the sponsorship of Ohio University's Research Priority Program:
``Structure of the Universe: From Quarks to Super-Clusters''.
Prakash has a broad range of interests that include nuclear and particle physics, the physics of high energy heavy-ion collisions, and astrophysics. Beginning with the nuclear fission process in his Ph.D. thesis, his research has covered many of the myriad phenomena that occur in nuclei and in nuclear matter under extreme conditions of density, temperature, and magnetic fields. His work has illuminated the role of the equation of state of dense matter in nuclear collisions from low to very high energies and the structure of neutron stars. Investigations of strangeness-bearing matter led him to discover new pathways to form stellar mass black holes from metastable neutron stars. His work includes the evolution of neutron stars from their birth to old age, neutrino interactions and propagation in dense astrophysical systems, and the theoretical interpretations of the growing number of observations of neutron stars. He develops equations of state, neutrino opacities, and transport characteristics in dense matter for studies of supernovae and binary mergers involving neutron stars and black holes.
In 2001, Prakash was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society (Division of Nuclear Physics) `` For fundamental research into the properties of hot and dense matter, providing a basis for understanding relativistic heavy ion collisions and the structure and composition of neutron stars''.
Prakash loves teaching. ``Classrooms are fun, especially as there are so many young people who want to learn. Students, with their questions, answers and doubts, make me learn more and more. It is a two-way street.'' Devising new projects that suit the interests and proclivities of students, be they high school students or undergraduate or graduate students, is a challenge he loves to embrace. Whether with students or other professionals, getting along on a very basic level of mutual liking and respect is very important to Prakash.
When not involved in science, Prakash's obsessions include inventing match-stick games (personal peculiarity), cricket (what a game!), reading (what a pleasure!), gardening (what a joy!), hiking (nature's fault for being so!) and films (why isn't there more time? oh, well!).
Prakash's favorite quote outside of science: ``We must become the change we want to see'', by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
