The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay is pleased to announce the Prof. C. V. Seshadri Distinguished Institute Lecture, to be delivered by Prof. Rama Govindarajan, a leading researcher in the field of Fluid Dynamics.

Title of Lecture: Cooperative Settling

Date: 10th February 2026

Time: 5:15 PM

Venue: PC Saxena Auditorium, IIT Bombay

Abstract: 

The rate at which solid particles settle through a fluid plays a crucial role in diverse phenomena, ranging from the global carbon cycle to several processes encountered in everyday life. Estimating this rate is a challenging problem, even in the seemingly simple case of a small sphere descending under gravity.
In this lecture, Prof. Govindarajan will discuss why sedimentation is difficult to predict, and will present insights from analytical studies, laboratory experiments, and numerical simulations that explore how particles settle cooperatively. The talk will conclude with a discussion on the dynamics of underwater sand dunes.

Speaker Bio:

Prof. Rama Govindarajan is a Professor at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru. Her research focuses on Fluid Dynamics. She received her B.Tech. degree from IIT Delhi, her Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, and carried out her postdoctoral research at Caltech. Prior to joining TIFR, she worked at the National Aerospace Laboratories and the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. She currently serves as an Associate Editor of Physical Review Fluids.

Faculty members, students, and staff are cordially invited to attend the lecture.