Raja’s fight against brain tumor comes to an end.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: World-renowned Indian-origin physicist Rajendran Raja passed away last week, on February 15, at his home in Illinois.
Born on July 14, 1948, Raja was 68 at the time of his passing. Originally from Guruvayoor, Kerala, he is survived by wife Selitha Raja, daughter Dr. Anjali Raja Beharelle, and his sister Dr. Paru Sharma.
Raja is perhaps best known for being one of the men behind the discovery of the Top Quark, an elementary particle that is considered to be one of the foundations for all matter that exists on earth. Raja worked very closely with Japanese physicists Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa during his time at Fermilab, located just outside Chicago.
Over the course of more than 300 articles and journal write-ups, Raja contributed significantly to the Top Quark’s discovery, but unlike his Japanese counterparts, did not go on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2008. Nevertheless, his work is widely recognized as having been crucial to the discovery of something so important.
Raja earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory, and in 1973, he was inducted as a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
He was with Fermilab for over two decades. Just a few years ago, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and spent the last years of his life fighting against it, although it has not definitively been said if this is what caused his death.
He was an avid patriot of his home region of Kerala, and was an enthusiastic practitioner of yoga. He also frequently visited temples.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com
[This story was updated on 2/20/14.]