The Institute of Mathematical Sciences

IMSc celebrates as Quantum Mechanics turns 100

October 17, 2025 | Bharti Dharapuram 

The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai (IMSc) joined institutions around the world in celebrating a century of quantum mechanics by organising a conference from 8-12 September 2025. The meeting featured lectures by speakers from a dozen research institutions and covered a broad sweep of topics from the foundations of quantum physics to its emerging applications across disciplines.

The meeting was organised by IMSc faculty Sibasish Ghosh, SR Hassan, Shrihari Gopalakrishna, Roji Pius and V Ravindran with the help of many volunteers.

“Our idea was to give a historical account of the development of quantum mechanics, starting from the 1920s to the present perspective. We had both theoretical and experimental talks. Some of the talks were more pedagogical, while others were a bit more advanced,” says Sibasish Ghosh, a member of the conference’s organizing committee. The lectures were tailored to be accessible to both postgraduates and advanced researchers from diverse fields.

At the end of two conference days, there were panel discussions on special themes. In these, speakers came together to discuss Quantum Information Science and the National Quantum Mission and answered questions from the audience. “The idea was to provide information about current developments, particularly in physics,” says Sibasish.

“One of the important aspects of Quantum Information Science is to see what kind of phenomena can emerge from it in other branches of science,” explains Sibasish. He cites examples of connections between quantum information and diverse fields such as Newtonian gravity, string theory and lattice gauge theory. “These kinds of connections will emerge further,” he says. “One of our goals with the conference was to have a discussion about these emerging phenomena.” The panel also discussed quantum entanglement and its experimental tests and connections between number theory and quantum physics.

The National Quantum Mission was set into motion two years ago to accelerate research and development in quantum technology. “Some of the panelists are playing an important role in the National Quantum Mission. And the goal with the discussion was to understand what we plan to achieve with the mission, what is its current status, and who the players are,” says Sibasish. Panelists discussed the steady and incremental progress in solving diverse problems using quantum computers, security aspects of quantum communication and institutional models that can drive innovation in emerging fields.

The conference also brought together many former IMSc faculty members who have contributed to quantum physics. “When Matscience started in 1962, many of the theoretical physicists here were from high-energy physics. And they had very important contributions, right from the beginning,” says Sibasish. Over the past decades, IMSc has hosted many eminent scientists from around the world whose research has shaped quantum physics. This centennial conference adds to this tradition, showcasing the diversity of quantum physics research from across the country.

Guruprasad Kar (ISI, Kolkata) presented a talk on 'Understanding the Non-local and Contextual Features of Quantum Mechanics.'

Subhash Chaturvedi (IISER-Bhopal) presented a talk on 'Geometric phases for finite state quantum systems, Bargmann invariants, null phase curves...'

Arul Lakshminarayan (IIT Madras) presented a talk on 'Chaos and the Quantum: From Einstein to Quantum Computing.'

B. Ananthanarayan (CHEP, IISc) presented talks on 'Particle Physics Phenomena and Quantum Mechanics' and 'Unpacking the muon g-2.'

Panel discussion on 'Quantum Information Science.'

TS Mahesh (IISER Pune) presented a talk on 'Recent Explorations of Nuclear Spin Dynamics: Unitary, Superposition of unitary, Nonunitary.'

Umakant D Rapol (IISER Pune) presented a talk on 'Quantum Diffusion and Localization in Atom-Optics Kicked Rotor Systems.'

R Shankar (retired IMSc) presented a talk on 'Fractional Statistics.'

Panel discussion on 'Prospects of experimental efforts in India in the field of Quantum Technology in light of the National Quantum Mission.'

Krishnendu Sengupta (IACS Kolkata) presented a talk on 'Ultracold atoms as platforms for dynamics and strong correlation.'

Mandar Deshmukh (TIFR Mumbai) presented a talk on 'Moiré materials for probing Berry curvature physics.'

Vivek Datar (retired BARC Mumbai & TIFR Mumbai) presented a talk on 'Resonances – a case study of 8Be.'

Rita John (Anna University) presented a talk on '169 years legacy of the University of Madras and its academic influence.'

Sandip Trivedi (TIFR Mumbai) presented a talk on 'String Theory: A Quantum Theory of Gravity.'

Aninda Sinha (CHEP, IISc) presented a talk on 'The quantum life of pi.'

Suvrat Raju (ICTS Bengaluru) presented a talk on 'Quantum gravity, locality and the reversibility of time.'

Sachindeo Vaidya (CHEP, IISc) presented a talk on 'Axial Anomaly and Light Hadron Masses in QCD.'

V. Balakrishnan (retired IIT Madras) presented a talk on 'Distances between probability distributions in quantum mechanics and quantum optics.'

Dipanjan Mitra (NCRA Pune) presented a talk on 'Neutron stars as Laboratories for Extreme Physics.'

Rahul Sinha (retired IMSc) presented a talk on 'Bose symmetry and tests of symmetry violations.'

MVN Murthy (retired IMSc) presented a talk on 'Neutrino Physics: A decade of discovery and beyond.'

Ghanashyam Date (retired CMI and IMSc) presented a talk on 'Gravity's resistance to its quantization.'

Mangala Sunder Krishnan (IIT Madras) presented a talk on 'The Story of the National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) So Far.'

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(All images by IMSc Media)

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