Dr Dharamvir Ahluwalia
Position
Senior Lecturer
Qualifications
Ph.D. Physics (Texas A&M University), M.A. Film Making and Physics (State University of New York at Buffalo)
Room
716, Physics and Astronomy
Contact Details
Phone: +64 3 364-2563
Internal Phone: 6563
Email: dharamvir.ahluwalia@canterbury.ac.nz
Postal address:
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Canterbury,
Private Bag 4800,
Christchurch, 8140
New Zealand
Courses
Supervision of Thesis Students
- Cheng-Yang Lee
- Dimitri Schritt
- Adam Gillard (submitted)
- Sebastian Horvath
Research Interests
Interface of gravitational and quantum realms, neutrino oscillations, representation space theory, theory of quantum fields, and nature and questions related to dark matter and dark energy.
Background
I was born in the winter of 1952 in a small Indian village called Fatehpur in North India. The simplicity of a pre-industrial life, when nights of India were still lighted by the moon and the milkyway, deeply affected my academic and personal evolution. The seduction of the light bulb now collides with the quiet night light of Indian sky, and this collision inspires my science and my life.
After my undergraduate education at University of Delhi as a National Science Talent Scholar, I obtained an M.A. in Film-making and Physics from the State University of New York at Buffalo. In the Fall of 1991, I obtained a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University. The years 1992-1998 were spent at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL); first, as Director's Postdoctoral Fellow and later as a consultant and staff member. During the six years at LANL, besides many other things, I came to appreciate experimental side of physics, and it had enormous influence on my thinking as a theoretical physicist. From the Fall of 1998 till May 2006 I was at University of Zacatecas (UAZ), Mexico. Since June 2006, I have made Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Canterbury as my academic home. Here, one can find a ring laser in the backyard of a cosmologist, and at the same time look at beautiful clouds, be soaked in rain and blue sky, and enveloped by trees and birds, clean sea and rivers, and above all planet's most wonderful people.My scientific landscape spans work on neutrino oscillations , to the studies at the interface of the gravitational and quantum realms, to the representation space theory in a quantum field theoretic context.
Presently, I am focusing my efforts on a new quantum field theoretic construct that explains the darkness of dark matter and carries important implications for astrophysics and cosmology.