Dr Lokesh Kumar, Department of Physics, PU got Project of worth 5.78 crores

Chandigarh, January 29, 2022: Dr. Lokesh Kumar from Department of Physics, Panjab University, Chandigarh has been sanctioned a project of Rs. 5.78 Crores from the Department of Science and Technology (DST),  New Delhi. Under this project Dr. Lokesh will be working in the International Collaborations - Solenoidal Tracker At RHIC (STAR) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), USA and A Large Ion Collider Experiment (ALICE) at CERN (European Council for Nuclear Research), Switzerland. These experiments are devoted to the study of the state of matter called Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) which existed few microseconds after the big-bang. The big-bang theory explains the origin of the Universe.
Dr. Lokesh is working in the field of Experimental High Energy Physics. He has authored more than 350 publications and having  h-index of 69 (source: Scopus). He worked as the Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the STAR experiment at BNL for more than three years. He has also worked as a permanent research scientist at National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), Bhubaneswar. He has delivered numerous invited lectures and seminars nationally and internationally.
Dr. Lokesh has already successfully completed the following research projects as Principal Investigator: UGC start up grant of Rs. 6 Lacs (funded by UGC) and Early Career Research Award of grant Rs. 17.5 Lacs (funded by Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)). He has also completed the project ALICE Upgrade, Operation and Utilization of grant Rs. 2.45 crore (funded by DST) as Co-Principal Investigator.
Dr. Lokesh won the Rahul Basu Memorial Award for the best thesis in High-Energy Physics (Experiment) for the period 2010-12. The award is coordinated through the Indian Physics Association (IPA) and is given for the most outstanding Ph.D. thesis from India in the area of High Energy Physics
Dr. Lokesh is the deputy-spokesperson of the India-ALICE-STAR collaboration comprising of Faculties and Scientists from premiere Indian Institutions and Universities participating in the STAR and ALICE experiments.
His name has also appeared in the Stanford University’s list of “World’s Top 2% Scientists” based on single-year impact (2020).
Dr. Lokesh is selected by the office of the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India (GOI) as an Expert member of the working group for (High Energy) Nuclear Physics section of the Mega Science Vision-2035 document. The PSA, GOI has undertaken the responsibility of carrying out the Next Vision Exercise of Mega Science Programme in six areas of research till the year 2035.
He has served as the convener of one of the Physics working groups of STAR experiment at BNL comprising of scientists from renowned institutions of various countries from 2011 to 2016.
Dr. Lokesh was one of the first persons to analyse the lowest energy (centre of mass energy 9.2 GeV) data at the STAR experiment. This analysis formed the basis of ongoing STAR Beam Energy Scan program at the BNL for the search of critical point in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) Phase diagram.
He has contributed to the experimental exploration of the QCD phase diagram by analysing STAR experimental data and obtaining various (T, B) points in the QCD phase diagram.
Dr. Lokesh acknowledged the support from DST, alongwith  Prof. Raj Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University. He also expressed his deep sense of Gratitude towards Prof R K Puri,  Chairperson, Department of Physics and  his Ph.D. supervisor (retd.) Prof. M. M. Aggarwal, and also the support staff at Panjab University for his scientific research work.