Chandra Wickramasinghe

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Chandra Wickramasinghe : biography

20 January 1939 –

Samplings of the stratosphere have also been carried out by Yang et al. (2005,Yang, Y., Yokobori, S., Kawaguchi, J., et al, 2005. , JAXA Research Development Report, JAXA-RR-08-001, 35-42 2009). During the experiment strains of highly radiation-resistant Deinococcus bacterium were detected at heights up to 35 km. Nevertheless these authors have abstained from linking these discoveries to panspermia.

Education

Wickramasinghe studied at Royal College, Colombo, the University of Ceylon where he graduated in 1960 with a BSc First Class Honours degree in mathematics, and at Trinity College, Cambridge and Jesus College, Cambridge where he obtained his PhD and ScD degrees. He was previously Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge (1963-1973); Professor and Head of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Astronomy at University College Cardiff (1973-1988); Professor in the School of Mathematics, University of Wales College of Cardiff (1988-1998); and Professor and Director of the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology (1999-2011), now a private company and charity.

Scientific career

In 1960 he commenced work in Cambridge on his PhD degree under the supervision of the late Sir Fred Hoyle, and published his first scientific paper "On Graphite Particles as Interstellar Grains” in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1962. He was awarded a PhD degree in Mathematics in 1963 and was elected a Fellow of Jesus College Cambridge in the same year. In the following year he was appointed a Staff Member of the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge. Here he continued to work on the nature of interstellar dust, publishing many papers in this field that led to a shift of emphasis in astronomy from inorganic dust models to organic grains.

He published the first definitive book on Interstellar Grains in 1967. He has made many contributions to this field, publishing over 350 papers in peer-reviewed journals, over 75 in Nature (journal). In 1974 he first proposed the hypothesis that some dust in interstellar space was largely organic (contain carbon),Nature, vol: 252, 462, 1974; and Nature,Vol 268, 610, 1977. which Wickramasinghe later proved to be correct. Wickramasinghe, D. T. & Allen, D. A. Nature 287, 518−519 (1980). Allen, D. A. & Wickramasinghe, D. T. Nature 294, 239−240 (1981). Wickramasinghe, D. T. & Allen, D. A. Astrophys. Space Sci. 97, 369−378 (1983). Hoyle and Wickramasinghe further contended that extraterrestrial life forms continue to enter the Earth’s atmosphere, and may be responsible for epidemic outbreaks, new diseases, and the genetic novelty necessary for macroevolution. In a virtual presentation on April 7, 2009, physicist Stephen Hawking endorsed the hypothesis. Chandra Wickramasinghe had the longest running collaboration with Fred Hoyle and is responsible for forging a link between biology and astronomy in the late 1970s. Their publications on books and papers arguing for panspermia and a cosmic hypothesis of life are nevertheless controversial.

Wickramasinghe was appointed a consultant and advisor to the President of Sri Lanka in 1982-84, and played a key role in founding the Institute of Fundamental Studies in Sri Lanka.

Articles

  • Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1962. On graphite particles as interstellar grains, Mon.Not.Roy.Astr.Soc. 124, 417-433
  • Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1969. Interstellar Grains, Nature 223, 450-462 doi:10.1038/223459a0
  • Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1974. Formaldehyde polymers in interstellar space, Nature 252, 462-463
  • Wickramasinghe, N.C., Hoyle, F., Brooks, J. and Shaw, G., 1977. Prebiotic polymers and infrared spectra of galactic sources, Nature 269, 674-676 doi:10.1038/269674a0
  • Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1977. Identification of the λ2,200A interstellar absorption feature, Nature 270, 323-324
  • Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1977. Primitive grain clumps and organic compounds in carbonaceous chondrites, Nature, 264, 45-46
  • Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1977. Polysaccharides and infrared spectra of galactic sources, Nature 268, 610-612
  • Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1979. On the nature of interstellar grains, Astrophysics and Space Science 66, 77-90 doi:10.1007/BF00648361
  • Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1979. Biochemical chromophores and the interstellar extinction at ultraviolet wavelengths, Astrophysics and Space Science 65, 241-244 doi:10.1007/BF00643503
  • Hoyle, F., Wickramasinghe, N.C., S. Al-Mufti et al., 1982. Infrared spectroscopy over the 2.9-3.9μm waveband in biochemistry and astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Science 83, 405-409 doi:10.1023/A:1002417307802
  • Hoyle, F., Wickramasinghe, N.C., S. Al-Mufti, 1982. Organo-siliceous biomolecules and the infrared spectrum of the Trapezium nebula, Astrophysics and Space Science 86, 63-69 doi:10.1007/BF00651830
  • Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1983. Bacterial life in space, Nature 306, 420 doi:10.1038/306420a0
  • Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1986. The case for life as a cosmic phenomenon, Nature 322, 509-511
  • Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., 1990. Influenza – evidence against contagion, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 83. 258-261
  • Napier, W.M., Wickramasinghe, J.T, Wickramasinghe, N.C., 2007. The origin of life in comets, International Journal of Astrobiology 6(4), 321-323 doi:10.1017/S1473550407003941
  • Rauf, K. and Wickramasinghe, C., 2010. Evidence for biodegradation products in the interstellar medium, International Journal of Astrobiology 9(1), 29-34 doi:10.1017/S1473550409990334
  • Wickramasinghe, N. C., 2010. The astrobiological case for our cosmic ancestry, International Journal of Astrobiology 9(2), 119–129 doi:10.1017/S1473550409990413
  • Wickramasinghe, N.C., Wallis, J., Wallis, D.H., Schild, R.E. and Gibson, C.H., 2012. Life-bearing planets in the solar vicinity, Astrophysics and Space Science 341.2, 295-9 DOI: 10.1007/s10509-012-1092-8
  • Chandra Wickramasinghe, A Journey with Fred Hoyle: The Search for Cosmic Life, World Scientific Publishing, 2005, ISBN 981-238-912-1
  • Janaki Wickramasinghe, Chandra Wickramasinghe and William Napier, Comets and the Origin of Life, World Scientific Publishing, 2009, ISBN 981-256-635-X
  • Chandra Wickramasinghe and Daisaku Ikeda, Space and Eternal Life, Journeyman Press, 1998, ISBN 1-85172-060-X