Editor's note
This special issue is dedicated to the 80th birthday of Prof. P. Ramasamy and celebrating his achievements and the impact of his work.
Prof. P. Ramasamy, Dean (Research), SSN College of Engineering and Director, SSN Research Centre, Chennai-603110, Tamil Nadu, President of Indian Association for Crystal Growth (IACG), and Vice-Chancellor of a State University (Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu) during 1993-1997, has more than 50 years teaching and 46 years research experience in the field of Crystal Growth that includes Si solar cells, dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC) and directional solidification for mc-Si growth including modelling.
Prof.P. Ramasamy is a leading expert on crystal growth and has made significant contributions in this field. He has co-authored 7 textbooks, completed about 60 projects, delivered more than 500 invited lectures, and published more than 1050 journal papers, which greatly impacted research in crystal growth and its many applications. Prof.P. Ramasamy has so far supervised 92 doctoral students who now work in many countries around the world.
Prof. P. Ramasamy was born in June 29th, 1943 in Tamil Nadu, India, and completed his PhD at the University of Madras in 1976. He then held research positions in many countries such as USA, England, Italy, Germany, France, Japan, and etc. He was awarded the UNESCO Award: Niels Bohr Gold Medal in 1998 and Khwarizmi International Festival award by Islamic Republic of IRAN (the prize received from the President of the Islamic Republic of IRAN) in1998. He was also awarded four National Awards from 1981 till 1991.
Prof. P. Ramasamy is admired not only for his fundamental work in crystal growth, but also for his great personal character, his readiness to share knowledge, and his avid devotion to promoting research activities in the crystal growth community. This special issue contains papers on crystal growth and its applications.
Prof. P. Ramasamy founded Crystal Growth Centre, Anna University in the year 1982. He was its director for several years. It was recognized as an Affiliated Centre of International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP). His deep involvement in crystal growth field resulted in the birth of a new method of Crystal Growth known after his name along with his student (Sankaranarayanan – Ramasamy (SR) method of crystal growth).
India’s FIRST Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) crystal (1 kg) was grown by Prof. P. Ramasamy in June 1989 and with this achievement India became the 7th country in the world to possess the know-how to grow Gallium Arsenide crystal. India’s FIRST Indium Phosphite (InP) crystal (1 kg) was also grown by Prof. P. Ramasamy in 1992 and with this achievement India became the 7th country in the world to possess the know-how to grow Indium Phosphite (InP) crystal.
Since the scientific achievements of Prof. Ramasamy is not limited to Crystal Growth field alone, this issue includes some other papers under Materials Science category.