Deepak Dhar: The man behind the ‘Abelian Sandpile Model'

Born on 30 December 1951 in Pratapgrarh, Uttar Pradesh to Murli Dhar and Rama Gupta Deepak Dhar is an Indian Theoretical physicist. He is widely known for his research on statistical physics and stochastic processes. Recently, awarded with the Dirac Medal for his contributions in statistical mechanics Dhar's name was once again in the news. The award is conferred by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Italy. 

His Abelian Sandpile Model describes how complex systems organise themselves and trigger sudden massive occurrences. It is used to study the earthquakes, stock market, power grids and so on.

Educational background

1970- Bachelors in Science from  University of Allahabad

1972- Master’s degree in Physics from IIT Kanpur

1978- PhD from California Institute of Technology(Caltech)

Major scientific contributions

• Worked on statistical mechanics and kinetics of random lattice. 
• Introduced the spectral dimension in the study of fractals.
• Work with Ramaswamy to solve the ‘Abelian Sandpile Model’ of self organised criticality and developed a new model named ‘Dhar-Ramaswamy Model’. 
• Used Bethe ansatz on direct site animals enumerated problem which was later called Dhar directed site-animals enumerated problem.
• Initiated models of metastable glassy states in stochastic evolution. 

Honours received so far

1983- INSA Young Scientist Medal

1991- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize

1993- J. Robert Schrieffer Prize

2001- INSA SN Bose Medal

2002- TWAS Prize

2022- Boltzmann Medal

2023- Padma Bhusan

2026- Dirac Medal

Currently he is a professor at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS- TIFR), Bengaluru.