Dr. Vinod Kumar Wadhawan earned his M. Sc. degree in solid-state physics from the University of Delhi, and Ph. D. degree in physics (X-ray crystallography) from the University of Bombay. His entire career was with the Department of Atomic Energy (GOI). His areas of interest include crystal physics, symmetry, phase transitions, ferroic materials, crystal growth, smart structures, and complex systems. He was till the end of 2010 a Raja Ramanna Fellow at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai. Before that he served as ‘Outstanding Scientist’
and Head, Laser Materials Division, Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore. He relinquished in 2010 the task of Associate Editor of the journal PHASE TRANSITIONS (Taylor & Francis, USA), having done editorial work for this journal for 25 years.

Dr. Wadhawan is the originator of the concepts of optical ferrogyrotropy, acoustical ferrogyrotropy, and latent symmetry. Other terms introduced by him in the scientific literature are superelectrostriction...