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Indian-origin scientist wins University of Maryland honor
IIT Madras alumnus Smrithan Ravichandran was recognized for research excellence and public engagement in physics.
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Pranavi Sharma - Wed, 13, May 2026
- 02:26 EDT
- 17
Smrithan Ravichandran / University of Maryland
Indian-origin doctoral student Smrithan Ravichandran received the CMNS Board of Visitors Outstanding Graduate Student Award at the University of Maryland’s College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences employee awards ceremony on May 1.
Ravichandran, an IIT Madras alumnus and graduate research assistant in chemical physics, was among the recipients honored during the annual ceremony, according to the university. The award recognizes a CMNS doctoral graduate student who has advanced to candidacy and demonstrated scholarly and research excellence.
The college said this year’s awardees were selected from hundreds of nominations submitted by members of the Science Terp community.
In addition to his academic work, Ravichandran runs an Instagram account, @ama_physicist, where he answers questions about physics and science. The account invites users to ask questions and emphasizes that there is “no such thing as a bad question.”
According to the college, he encourages curiosity at all levels and provides responses in English or Tamil to make physics more accessible to a broader audience.
Ravichandran describes his research on his LinkedIn profile as studying “how electrons move in some of the strongest laser fields achievable on planet Earth.”
“I study how electrons move in some of the strongest laser fields achievable on planet Earth, and how we can use that information to make fundamental measurements of the vacuum that makes up most of our universe,” he wrote.
The College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland said it educates more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students each year. The college includes 10 departments and seven interdisciplinary research centers, with annual sponsored research funding exceeding $250 million.
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