Bikas Chakrabarti

AwardsShanti Swarup Bhatnagar AwardScientific careerFieldsPhysics, EconomicsInstitutionsSaha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata
Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata
S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata

Bikas Kanta Chakrabarti (born 14 December 1952 in Kolkata (erstwhile Calcutta) is an Indian physicist.^[1] At present he is INSA Scientist (Physics) at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics & Visiting Professor (Economics) at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India.

Chakrabarti received his Ph.D. degree from Calcutta University in 1979. Following post-doctoral work at the University of Oxford and the University of Cologne, he joined the faculty of Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP) in 1983. He is S. S. Bhatnagar Prize awardee (1997) and former J. C. Bose National Fellow (2011-2020). He is a former director of SINP. At present he is INSA Scientist at SINP (2021-) and also Honorary Visiting Professor of economics (2007-) at the Indian Statistical Institute. Emeritus Professor of SINP and of S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences. Much of Chakrabarti's research has centered around statistical physics & condensed matter physics (including Quantum computing & Quantum annealing; see also D-Wave Systems & Timeline of quantum computing) and their application to social sciences (see e.g., Econophysics). He has authored several books and papers in the fields of physics and economics. Chakrabarti is (and was) member of the editorial boards of a number of physics and economics journals and book series (from Springer & Cambridge University Press).

• Young Scientist Award of Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi (1984)^[2]
• Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India (1997)
• Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (1997-)
• Fellow, Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi (2003-)
• Honorary Visiting Professor of Economics, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata (2007- )
• Outstanding Referee Award of the American Physical Society (2010)
• J. C. Bose National Fellow, Department of Science and Technology (India) (2011-2020)

• “Influential” & “Elegant” papers from “Kolkata School” (pp. 1705, 1711),^[3] Reviews of Modern Physics by Victor Yakovenko Dept. Phys. University of Maryland & J. Barkley Rosser Jr. Dept. Econ. James Madison University (2009)
• “Father of Econophysics" (p. 15),^[4] Thesis by Christophe Schinckus, Dept. History and Philosophy of Science University of Cambridge (2018)
• “Earliest work in laying foundation of Quantum annealing was done in 1989 (Ray, Charabarti & Chakrabarti, Phys. Rev. B) ... Das & Chakrabarti (Rev. Mod. Phys., 2008) gives clear picture of fundamental physical properties and mechanism” (Introduction),^[5] Journal of Physics B by Helmut Ritsch et al. from Inst. Theor. Phys. University of Innsbruck (2022)
• "Historic conference in Kolkata (India, 1995)": One of the six landmark events in the last hundred and twenty years of physics applications "in economics and finance ... [since] doctoral dissertation defense by Louis Bachelier in 1900" (Fig. 2 & caption)^[6] Entropy (journal) Econophysics spl. issue editorial by Ryszard Kutner, Christophe Schinckus & H. Eugene Stanley (2022).
• “Adiabatic quantum computation (Farhi et al., Science, 2001; Das & Chakrabarti, Rev. Mod. Phys., 2008)” (Abstract) ...“has attracted intense interest owing to its potential speedup over classical algorithms” (Introduction),^[7] PNAS by Frank Wilczek et al. from MIT & elsewhere (2023)
• "Foundational paper (Chakraborti & Chakrabarti, Euro. Phys. J. B, 2000)” (Abstract) ... "Twenty-five years of random asset exchange modeling: successes and limitations" (throughout),^[8] European Physical Journal B Topical Review by Max Greenberg from Dept. Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst & H. Oliver Gao of Dept. Systems Engineering, Cornell University (2024)
• “Econophysics: An Introduction (Sinha, Chatterjee, Chakraborti & Chakrabarti, Wiley, 2010)” has been the only suggested Literature/Textbook for the Econophysics course (Teacher: Diego Garlaschelli),^[9] offered for last one and half a decade by the Leiden University physics department (where the start-year [1969] economics Nobel Laureate Jan Tinbergen did undergraduate study and Ph. D. research in statistical physics of economics under Paul Ehrenfest) (course started 2012-2013 & continues till date 2024-2025)

• Quantum Ising Phases and Transitions in Transverse Ising Models, Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Amit Dutta and Parangama Sen, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg (1996).
• Statistical Physics of Fracture and Breakdown in Disordered Solids, Bikas K. Chakrabarti and L. Gilles Benguigui, Oxford University Press, Oxford (1997).
• Econophysics: An Introduction, Sitabhra Sinha, Arnab Chatterjee, Anirban Chakraborti and Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Wiley-VCH, Berlin (2011)
• Econophysics of Income & Wealth Distributions, Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Anirban Chakraborti, Satya R. Chakravarty and Arnab Chatterjee, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2013).
• Quantum Ising Phases and Transitions in Transverse Ising Models, Sei Suzuki, Jun-ichi Inoue and Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg (2013).
• Sociophysics: An Introduction, Parangama Sen and Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Oxford University Press, Oxford (2014).
• Quantum Phase Transitions in Transverse Field Spin Models: From Statistical Physics to Quantum Information, Amit Dutta, Gabriel Aeppli, Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Uma Divakaran, Thomas Felix Rosenbaum & Diptiman Sen, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2015).
• Statistical Physics of Fracture, Breakdown & Earthquakes, Soumyajyoti Biswas, Purusattam Ray & Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Wiley-VCH, Berlin (2015).
• Quantum Spin Glasses, Annealing and Computation, Shu Tanaka, Ryo Tamura & Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2017).

• B. K. Chakrabarti and M. Acharyya, Dynamic Transitions and Hysteresis, Rev. Mod. Phys. 71, 847 (1999)
• A. Das and B. K. Chakrabarti, Quantum Annealing and Analog Quantum Computations, Rev. Mod. Phys. 80, 1061 (2008)
• S. Pradhan, A. Hansen, and B. K. Chakrabarti, Failure Processes in Elastic Fiber Bundles, Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 499 (2010).
• H. Kawamura, T. Hatano, N. Kato, S. Biswas, and B. K. Chakrabarti, Statistical Physics of Fracture, Friction, and Earthquakes, Rev. Mod. Phys. 84, 839 (2012).
• A. Chakraborti, D. Challet, A. Chatterjee, M. Marsili, Y.-C. Zhang, and B. K. Chakrabarti, Statistical Mechanics of Competitive Resource Allocation using Agent-Based Models, Phys. Rep. 552, 1 (2015).
• B. K. Chakrabarti and A. Sinha, Development of Econophysics: A Biased Account and Perspective from Kolkata, Entropy, 23, 254 (2021).
• A. Rajak, S. Suzuki, A. Dutta and B. K. Chakrabarti, Quantum Annealing: An Overview, Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. A, 381, 20210417 (2023).

• Google Sites Homepage
• Profile in Vidwan Database
• Outstanding Referees of the American Physical Society
• "Influential" & "Elegant" papers from "Kolkata School" (see pp. 1705, 1711 & throughout)
• "Father of Econophysics" (Open Access, see pp. 15-16)
• "Earliest work in laying foundation of Quantum Annealing" (Open Access, see 3rd & 5th paragraphs of Introduction)
• "Historic conference in Kolkata (India, 1995)", (Open Access, See Fig. 2 & its caption in the Editorial of the Spl. Issue on Econophysics)
• "Adiabatic Quantum Computing ... has attracted intense interest owing to its potential speedup" (Open Access, see Abstract & 2nd paragraph of Introduction)
• "Foundational paper: 25 years of random asset exchange modeling" (view only Open Access, see Abstract & throughout)
• "Leiden University Econophysics Prospectus" (2012-2013)-"Leiden University Econophysics Prospectus" (2024-2025)