The Durban University of Technology hosted the esteemed Professor Naresh Dadhich, a theoretical physicist and former Director and Emeritus Professor at the Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics. Professor Dadhich delivered the public lecture on ‘A unified view of the four basic forces’…

The Durban University of Technology hosted the esteemed Professor Naresh Dadhich, a theoretical physicist and former Director and Emeritus Professor at the Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics. Professor Dadhich delivered the public lecture on ‘A unified view of the four basic forces’. The event was held at DUT’s Hotel Conference Centre, Ritson Campus on 8 November.

The lecture was well attended by DUT’s academic staff and science enthusiasts. Vice-Chancellor Professor Ahmed Bawa said, “We are honoured and privileged to have Professor Naresh Dadhich, a world-renowned physicist and a very dear friend share his thoughts and theories with us.”

Dadhich explained the four basic forces and broke down the fundamentals of each category. Some of the subject matter included what a force is characterized by, what is a Universal Force, Motion under Universal Force, Einsteinian Gravity, Geodesic of curved space-time and why are there four forces and how it originated. Maxwell Electrodynamics was also looked at together with the duality relations between the forces.

The intriguing question about a fifth force arose and whether it existed or not. Professor Dadhich said, “If it does exist it cannot be long range, it could be short range and it will be quantum and very complex.”

Professor Naresh Dadhich who was born in Sarsali in Churu District Rajasthan and studied at Pilani,Hissar Vallabh-Vidyanagar and completed his PhD in general relativity under the guidance of the highly respected mathematician and physicist, Vishnu Vasudev Narlikar in Pune.

Professor Dadhich is also an Honorary Research Professor at UKZN. His focus areas of research are gravity and relativistic astrophysics. He travels globally to conduct discussions and collaborate with colleagues. Professor Dadhich said, “I spend so much time in South Africa, I feel like an honorary citizen.”

Professor Dadhich will be back on Thursday, 10 November to speak about ‘Einstein for everyone’ at DUT’s Hotel Conference Centre.