Pran Nath, Northeastern’s longest-tenured professor, pursues the beautiful mysteries of physics

Pran Nath has a humble way of demystifying the secrets of the universe.

“What fascinates me about physics is not just that it is the source of all sciences,” says Nath, the Matthews Distinguished University Professor in physics at Northeastern. “It’s that we understand so little of it when it comes to the big physics question: Why does the universe exist? Of course we know sufficient physics to be able to do the everyday tasks — build bridges, buildings, make cars and electrical appliances and now even microchips.

“But the deeper you dig, the more beautiful physics gets — more intricate and more fascinating,” says Nath, who has lived in the U.S. since emigrating from his native India as a young graduate student. “And with that depth, you open up a vast new unknown and you begin to realize that you understand even less of the whole picture.”

Read more from NGN Magazine.

Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University

Physics
Featured Faculty