Pankaj Jain

Pankaj Jain is a Professor in the Department of Space, Planetary & Astronomical Sciences & Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. His research lies at the intersection of high energy physics, cosmology, and astrophysics, with a focus on cosmic anisotropies, dark energy, dark matter, and physics beyond the Standard Model.

Education:

• PhD in Physics, Syracuse University (1988)
  Thesis: "Effective Lagrangian for Strong Interactions" under Prof. Joseph Schechter
• MS in Physics, IIT Delhi (1982)

Research Interests: Jain’s work spans a broad range of topics including large-scale cosmic anisotropy, inhomogeneous pre-inflationary universe models, cosmic ray physics, black hole X-ray binaries, and tests of fundamental symmetries. He has contributed to understanding the cosmic ray spectrum at TeV energies using the GRAPES-3 experiment, explored the nature of dark energy and dark matter through theoretical models, and investigated anomalies in the cosmic microwave background and radio source distributions.

Publications & Research Impact: Jain has authored over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, with 15 of the most recent works (2022–2024) covering advanced topics such as cosmic ray anisotropy, GRAPES-3 detector calibration, black hole QPOs, and novel mechanisms for low-energy nuclear fusion. His research is marked by a synergy of theoretical modeling and experimental collaboration, particularly with the GRAPES-3 and AstroSat collaborations.

Awards & Honors:

• DAE Young Scientist Award (1996)
• Associate Member, International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Italy (1996–2001)

Contact & Affiliation: Jain is based in FB-474, SPASE Department, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur 208016, India. He can be reached at pkjain@iitk.ac.in or via office phone +91-512-259-7663.