Eminent physicist Dr.Parameswaran Hariharan has died on 26 July, 2015 in Berkeley, California at the age of 89. Dr. Hariharan was the son of Prof. H. Parameswaran (H. P. Waran) of Presidency College and the son-in-law of Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer. He was born on December 24, 1926.

About Dr. P. Hariharan

• Parameswaran Hariharan worked at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), New Delhi (1949-51) & at the National Research Council, Ottawa (1951-54).
• He was Director of the laboratories at Hindustan Photo Films, Ootacamund (1961-71) and Senior Professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore (1971-73).
• He was an Honorary Research Fellow at CSIRO and an Honorary Visiting Professor at Sydney University.
• He was awarded the degree of DSc (hc) (2001) by the University of Sydney. Dr Hariharan was the President of the Optical Society of India (1973) and the Australian Optical Society (1988).
• He was Vice-President (1984-87) of the International Commission for Optics and then it’s Treasurer (1987-93).

Achievements, Awards & Honours of Dr. P. Hariharan

• He was the first physicist to apply digital phase shifting using the geometric phase and made significant contributions to the study of quantum effects in optical interference.
• He had developed multicolour rainbow holograms and improved multicolour reflection holograms.
• He was the first to apply digital phase-shifting techniques to holographic interferometry for measurements of vector displacements and strains.
• He had published more than 200 papers and five major reviews in international journals. He had authored four books and written several book chapters.
• He was a recipient of the Joseph Fraunhofer Medal of the Optical Society of America, the Thomas Young Medal of the Institute of Physics, London, the Dennis Gabor Award of SPIE, the Henderson Medal of the Royal Photographic Society, the Walter Boas Medal of the Australian Institute of Physics and Gold Medals of the Australian Optical Society and SPIE.
• He was a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, the Optical Society of America, SPIE of the Institute of Physics, London, and the Royal Photographic Society.

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