Sad demise of Professor Raghvendra Singh
With profound sadness, we announce the sudden passing of Professor Raghvendra Singh, a distinguished former faculty member of the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), on Monday, July 21, 2025 at the age of 70 years. A leading plasma physicist in India, Professor Singh made pioneering contributions to plasma physics, spanning fundamental plasma dynamics to cutting-edge tokamak research. His internationally recognized work on edge turbulence, geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) dynamics, density limits, momentum transport, and edge-localized mode (ELM) control provided deep insights into complex plasma phenomena. His expertise in analytical modeling, grounded in innovative physics concepts, illuminated results from large-scale computations and offered critical theoretical support to experimental projects at IPR, including the ADITYA tokamak and the Large Volume Plasma Device (LVPD).
Professor Singh was a prominent figure in global fusion research, actively participating in International Tokamak Physics Activity (ITPA) groups and serving as a Visiting Scientist at prestigious institutions such as ITER, UC San Diego, NIFS Korea, Chalmers University, and IPP Jülich. An exceptional teacher and mentor, he guided numerous young researchers at IPR, nurturing their careers with dedication and inspiration. Affectionately known as "Singh-sahib," his vibrant and inspiring presence continues to resonate within the Institute. His loss is deeply felt, and his legacy will endure through his contributions and the lives he touched.
Messages
In Memoriam: Dr. Raghavendra Singh
(Dr. Shishir Deshpande)
Dr. Raghavendra Singh. He was fondly called ‘Singh Saab’ by most of his colleagues. Raghavendra had joined IPR around 1988 after his post-doctoral work in Sweden, where he had worked with Andre Rogister. Singh saab carried deep, clear and positive memories of that work which involved meticulous. Long hand calculations performed with flaw-less precision and incredibly beautiful handwriting. Some of these notes continued to inspire scholars throughout their career. He worked in plasma theory, loved experiments and hated doing computational work himself. But he was amazingly accurate in finding programming errors as he sat with the students who wrote the programs. His insistence on getting the crux of the underlying physics on blackboard was overpowering and several great computational plasma physics experts would eventually agree with the insights he obtained. Singh casted an amazing influence on the theory and experimental people around him, criticizing, provoking and working with them despite his ruthless choice of words for almost four decades. He was loved for his science enthusiasm and human values. He was a free thinker, remained free and maintained a loud and clear irreverence to procedural aspects when they interfered while doing science. Whatever he said was always open on the face of the person. There was no other opinion. It was always amazing to see such powerful undiplomatic person being so popular.
Singh saab talked to the students freely and excitedly about his work and how others are addressing open questions in tokamak plasma physics. Age difference was never an issue. After retirement he took to teaching in his village and coaching the underprivileged students for admission to reputed institutions in India.
He was also known for his unbeatable skill in chess.
The series Mahabharata, coined a new word ‘Arya putra’, that became so popular that he adopted it in his routine conversations, calling anyone as ‘hey Arya Putra’ (हे आर्य पुत्र). Even foreigners!
May you rest in peace dear Arya putra, Singh saab and to most of us just Raghavendra !
Message from Prof.Swadesh M Mahajan
"I am so sorry to hear that He was so young!
Pls convey my condolences to his family.
We should have a chat sometime
Swadesh"
Mahajan, Swadesh M
Professor, University of Texas at Austin,
Austin, Texas
Distinguished Professor,
Shiv Nadar University
Uttar Pradesh, India
Messages from Jae-Min
"This is sad, I am really sorry to hear that.
He is remembered and missed by many in KFE.
During his stay, he was very energetic to drive/promote key theoretical studies,
and also kind to guide/help many young guys entering early research carriers.
Also, non-researchers know and remember him very well, as he was kind enough to showup in our PR clip."
