Naturally : Tread Softly on the Planet

Vikram Soni has been UGC Professor of Physics at the National Physical Laboratory and at the Centre for Theoretical Physics at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He is presently an Emeritus Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

He was educated at the University of Delhi and the University of California, Santa Barbara, US. He has taught at universities in the UK, the US and Europe, besides India. He has worked mainly in high energy physics and astrophysics. Alongside, seeing the tragic shrinking of India’s rich forest cover, he has worked quietly for conservation. In physics, he has made seminal contributions to the understanding of phenomena ranging from the nucleon to neutron stars and from the matter-antimatter puzzle to evolutionary networks. More significantly, he has produced a body of work in public-interest science that deals with non-invasive ‘preserve and use’ solutions to contemporary problems, particularly water problems. This work has been published in various prestigious science journals. Acting on his convictions, he has also worked tirelessly to protect living natural resources, both with the courts and government. The Aravalli Biodiversity Park in Delhi exists thanks to these efforts. The protection and moratorium on building on the floodplain of River Yamuna followed from the novel natural water storage scheme proposed by Soni and his co-workers.