Scientist from Patna in Great Company

In a recent remark, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and noted film star from Bihar Shatrughan Sinha said Bihar had no dearth of talent. It has produced people of outstanding talents who have gone to make their names not only in India but across the globe.

Dr. Kumar Shwetketu Virbhadra is one of those shining stars from Bihar who has broken the mould of an average Bihari and is now in proud company of some of the world's noted scientists and educationists.

At the end of 2006, Dr. Virbhadra, a native of Nadwan village in Patna district, had the distinct honor of being listed as the author of most number of research papers in the top-50 most highly cited papers in Einstein's general theory of relativity and quantum cosmology.

Among those who also appear in this prestigious list are Nobel laureate Prof. Steven Wienberg, noted particle physicist and Prof. S. W. Hawking, the legendary scientist and visionary who does not need any introduction.

Dr. Virbhadra matriculated from Nadwan High School in Patna district. He earned his M.Sc. degree from Patna University and PhD degree from Physical Research Laboratory (Ahmedabad). His research fields are Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and Astrophysics. He has worked in India, Spain, South Africa and United States. He was privileged to have the opportunity to work at several institutions including Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (India), University of Cape Town (South Africa) and Duke University (USA). At present he is working at the University of Sciences in Philadelphia (USA) as a research associate professor.


The SPIRES-HEP (run by the Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre, California (USA)) publishes the top 50 most highly cited papers during a year by papers in the General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology archive. It is considered very prestigious to have even one paper appeared on this list. In 2006, Dr. Virbhadra's 5 papers were under the top 50 most highly cited papers. In fact, he has the largest number of papers on this list. This information is available here.

Dr. Virbhadra's top cited papers are on black holes, gravitational waves, and the cosmic censorship hypothesis. Out of his five top cited papers, four are sole-authored and one is a joint paper with Prof. Nathan Rosen, who was a principal collaborator of the greatest scientist of the 20th century, Albert Einstein. Prof. Rosen is well-known for his Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox, Einstein-Rosen bridge, and Einstein-Rosen gravitational waves. Dr. Virbhadra's joint paper with Prof. Rosen is on Einstein-Rosen gravitational waves.

Dr. Virbhadra was also privileged to have the opportunity to collaborate and publish three papers with Prof. George F. R. Ellis of Hawking-Ellis fame. He and Prof. Ellis obtained a new gravitational lens equation that is now known in the scientific world as the Virbhadra-Ellis lens equation. This has resurrected the research field of black hole lensing and has attracted many researchers from all over the world to work on this very hot and important research topic.

Yet another example of Bihar's legendary talents!