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2021-01-04T14:17:48Z

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{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=June 2018}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Ravi Gomatam
| image = R_Gomatam_2011.jpg
| image_size = 200px
| caption = Ravi Gomatam, June, 2011
| fields = [[Quantum physics]]
| alma_mater = [[Annamalai University]]<br>[[BITS Pilani]]<br>[[University of Mumbai]]
}}
'''Ravi Veeraraghavan Gomatam''' (born 1950, in Chennai, India) is the Director of ''Bhaktivedanta Institute'' (Berkeley and Mumbai) and the newly formed ''Institute of Semantic Information Sciences and Technology'' (Berkeley and Mumbai). He teaches graduate level courses at these institutes. He was an Adjunct Professor at [[Birla Institute of Technology & Science]] (BITS), Pilani, Rajasthan, India (1993-2015).

He has been made a visiting professor for the year 2016-2017 at the [[Indian Council of Philosophical Research]] (ICPR), a Government of India body, under the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

In January 1990, he organized a conference titled ''First International Conference on the Study of Consciousness within Science'' in San Francisco.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.bvinst.edu/conferences/1990-at-san-francisco | website = Bhaktivedanta Institute | title = The First International Conference for the Study of Consciousness within Science | access-date = 2013-02-28 }}</ref> Subsequently, in 1997 Gomatam conceived and launched the world's first{{citation needed|date=December 2015}} M.S./Ph.D. programs in "consciousness studies",<ref>{{cite web | url = https://bvinst.edu/graduate-program | title = Graduate Studies | access-date = 2013-02-28 | website = Bhaktivedanta Institute}}</ref> in collaboration with the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani (one of India's foremost technological universities). "Consciousness Studies" is a developing, inter-disciplinary scientific field, which Gomatam has particularly re-conceived as a new way of studying ''matter''.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.bvinst.edu/what-is-consciousness-studies | title = What is Consciousness Studies? | access-date = 2013-02-28 | last = Gomatam | first = Ravi | date = 2010-06-12 | website = Bhaktivedanta Institute}}</ref>

In 2015, the Institute of Semantic Information Sciences and Technology started offering M.A. (by research) and Ph.D. programs <ref>{{cite web | url = http://insist.ac.in/ | title = Institute of Semantic Information Sciences and Technology | access-date = 2015-12-24 | website = InSIST}}</ref> in collaboration with the Mumbai University, India.

Gomatam’s own field of research is foundations of [[quantum mechanics]], wherein he is introducing a few new ideas, including those of "Objective, Semantic Information" and a notion of "Relational Properties" that is different from that of [[Carlo Rovelli|Rovelli]] and others. His new ideas have received notice for their potential.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.bvinst.edu/appreciations | title = Appreciations | access-date = 2018-08-31 | website = Bhaktivedanta Institute}}</ref> He has related research interests in [[semantic computation]], [[systems sciences]], [[artificial intelligence]], [[philosophy of science]] and [[philosophy of language]].<ref name="InSIST">{{cite web |url=https://insist.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/DirCV.pdf |title=Resume | website=InSIST |access-date=2015-12-29 }}</ref>

==Education==
* B.E. 1972 Electrical and Electronics Engineering, [[Annamalai University]], India
* M.E. 1974 Electronics Engineering, [[BITS Pilani|Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani]], India
* Ph.D. 1998 Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, [[Bombay University|Mumbai University]], India. Dissertation Title: ''Toward a realist interpretation of quantum theory – Integrating Bohr and Einstein.''

==Early work in the industry==
In the 1970s Gomatam worked with India’s international airline on their software development projects. He then moved to the USA and worked as a freelance consultant for a number of [[Fortune 500|Fortune-500]] companies including [[General Motors]], [[Ford]], [[Chrysler]], [[Burroughs Corporation|Burroughs]] and [[International Business Machines|IBM]] in the areas of operating system design, [[data communications]] and very-large database design.<ref name="InSIST"/>

==Academic career==
Starting from the early 1980s, Gomatam turned to fundamental scientific research, and started contributing to the development of the Bhaktivedanta Institute (B.I.) in Mumbai and Berkeley. Along the way, based on the work he was doing at B.I., he obtained his Ph.D. in the foundations of quantum mechanics.<ref name="InSIST"/>

He has been a visiting scholar at [[University of Pretoria]], South Africa and [[Loyola University New Orleans|Loyola University]], New Orleans, USA.<ref name="InSIST"/>

==Research==
Gomatam’s primary area of research is in non-relativistic quantum mechanics (QM), which emerged in 1925 with [[Erwin Schrödinger|Erwin Schrödinger's]] derivation of the "[[wave equation]]".

Gomatam is developing his own approach to macroscopic quantum mechanics (MQM, applying the wave equation to the macroscopic regime), which is distinct from the ideas of ‘macroscopic dissipative systems’<ref>{{cite journal | title = Influence of Dissipation on Quantum Tunneling in Macroscopic Systems | journal = Physical Review Letters | year = 1981 | first = A. O. | last = Caldeira |author2=Anthony Leggett | volume = 46 | issue = 4 | pages = 211–214| doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.46.211 | bibcode=1981PhRvL..46..211C}}</ref> and ‘macroscopic quantum coherence’,<ref>{{cite journal | title = Quantum mechanics versus macroscopic realism: Is the flux there when nobody looks? | journal = Physical Review Letters | year = 1985 | first = Anthony | last = Leggett |author2=Anupam Garg | volume = 54 | issue = 9 | pages = 857–860| doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.54.857 | bibcode=1985PhRvL..54..857L | pmid = 10031639| url = https://semanticscholar.org/paper/ede5d6cbae28525c1bb729be331335ede68f5959 }}</ref> developed in the early 80s by [[Anthony James Leggett]].<ref>{{cite journal | title = Testing the limits of quantum mechanics: motivation, state of play, prospects | journal = Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter | year = 2002 | first = Anthony | last = Leggett | volume = 14 | issue = 15 | pages = R415–451|bibcode = 2002JPCM...14..415N |doi = 10.1088/0953-8984/14/3/311 | last2 = Iguchi | first2 = E | last3 = Oohara | first3 = Y }}</ref> In general, Leggett's attempt is to ''indirectly'' observe [[Quantum superposition|superposition]] at the macroscopic level by ''extending'' current microscopic quantum physics to the macroscopic level. {{citation needed|date=December 2015}}

In contrast, Gomatam is attempting to develop MQM ''independent of the application of the Schrödinger equation to the micro regime'', in such a manner that quantum superposition can be ''directly'' observed at the macroscopic level. This involves introducing a new notion of macroscopic objects as quantum ''kinds'', instead of classical ''objects''.<ref name="bvinst">{{cite book | last1 = Gomatam | first1 = Ravi | title = Materialism and Immaterialism in India and the West: Varying Vistas | chapter = Quantum Realism and Haecceity |editor = Partha Ghose | date = 17 Sep 2010 | location = New Delhi}}</ref> In this regard, he is also developing two further new ideas within physics: the ontology of "Objective, Semantic Information" (OSI) and corresponding "Relational Properties" (RPs).

As part of developing his version of MQM, Gomatam has related interests in exotic [[manifolds]], semantic information processing, [[quantum computation]], and [[Ordinary language philosophy|philosophy of ordinary language]].<ref name="InSIST"/>

==Selected papers==
* Niels Bohr's Interpretation and the Copenhagen Interpretation—Are the two incompatible?" <ref>{{cite journal | title = Niels Bohr's Interpretation and the Copenhagen Interpretation -- Are the two incompatible? | journal = Philosophy of Science | year = 2007 | first = Ravi | last = Gomatam | volume = 74 | issue = 5 | pages = 736–748| url = http://philpapers.org/rec/GOMNBI | doi = 10.1086/525618}}</ref> Here Gomatam contrasts [[Niels Bohr|Bohr's]] Interpretation with [[Copenhagen Interpretation]] (where Bohr is a co-author).<ref name="Stanford 2014">{{cite web |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-copenhagen |title=Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics | website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |date=2014-07-24 |access-date=2015-12-28 }}</ref> This paper was a required reading in a course in Quantum Mechanics at Brown University.<ref name="Brown University 2010">{{cite news |last=Kutach |first=Douglas |url=http://sagaciousmatter.org/Phil1620.html |title=Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics, Spring 2010 |work=Assignment 2 |date=2010 |access-date=2015-12-28 }}</ref>
* Quantum Theory and the Observation Problem.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Quantum Theory and the Observation Problem | journal = Journal of Consciousness Studies | year = 1999 | first = Ravi | last = Gomatam | volume = 6 | issue = 11–12 | pages = 173–90| arxiv = 0708.1587| bibcode = 2007arXiv0708.1587G}}</ref> [[Michael Turvey]] credits Gomatam for labeling a key problem in quantum mechanics as "observation problem" which he says were only "implicit in deliberations of [[Niels Bohr|Bohr]], [[Albert Einstein|Einstein]], [[John Stewart Bell|Bell]] and others: to identify a quantum-compatible nonclassical conception of everyday objects, one consonant with the principle of superposition."<ref name="Turvey 2015">{{cite journal |title=Quantum-Like Issues at Nature's Ecological Scale (the Scale of Organisms and Their Environments) |journal=Mind and Matter |year=2015 |last=Turvey |first=Michael T. |volume=13 |issue=1 |url=http://www.mindmatter.de/journal/abstracts/mmabstracts13_1.html |access-date=2015-12-27 }}</ref> [[Wolfgang Prinz]],<ref name="MIT Press 2013">{{cite book |last=Prinz |first1=Wolfgang |last2=Beisert |first2=Miriam |last3=Herwig |first3=Arvid |title=Action Science: Foundations of an Emerging Discipline |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England |publisher=MIT Press |year=2013 |page=160 | url = https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/action-science | access-date=2015-12-28 }}</ref> M.W. Stuckey<ref name="Stuckey 2000">{{cite journal | title = Uniform Spaces in the Pregeometric Modeling of Quantum Non-Separability | journal = International Journal of Theoretical Physics | year = 2000 | last = Stuckey | first = W.M. | last2 = Silberstein | first2 = Michael | arxiv = gr-qc/0003104| bibcode = 2000gr.qc.....3104S }}</ref> and Panos Pardalos<ref name="Springer 2008">{{cite book |last=Pardalos |first1=Panos M. |last2=Yatsekno |first2=Vitaliy A. |title=Optimization and Control of Bilinear Systems: Theory, Algorithms, and Applications |chapter=Optimization And Control Of Quantum-Mechanical Processes |volume=11 |location=New York |publisher=Springer |page=208 |isbn=978-0-387-73669-3 |doi=10.1007/978-0-387-73669-3 |series=Springer Optimization and its Applications |year=2008 |chapter-url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/30c578d0f8f10965c1b723303c72efb307a08dfc }}</ref> cite this paper for its key contribution in the field of macroscopic quantum mechanics.
* How Do Classical and Quantum Probabilities Differ?<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Gomatam | first1 = Ravi | title = Foundations of Probabilities and Physics - 6 | chapter = How Do Classical and Quantum Probabilities Differ? | publisher = American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings | volume = 1424 | pages= 105–110 | date = 2011 | editor = A. Khrennikov | doi=10.1063/1.3688958 | series = AIP Conference Proceedings | chapter-url = https://semanticscholar.org/paper/a64cc3eb0a61d46a9ebb5c05de629735bf73b4ae }}</ref>
* Macroscopic Quantum Mechanics and System of Systems Design Approach.<ref>{{Cite journal | first = Ravi | last = Gomatam | title= Macroscopic Quantum Mechanics and System of Systems Design Approach | journal = Indo-US Workshop on Systems Engineering | place = India | date = 2010 }}</ref>
* Quantum Theory, the Chinese Room Argument and the Symbol Grounding Problem.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Gomatam | first1 = Ravi | title = Quantum Interaction-2009, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence | chapter = Quantum Theory, the Chinese Room Argument and the Symbol Grounding Problem |editor = P. Bruza |display-editors=etal | volume = 5494 | pages = 174–183 | year = 2009 | publisher = Springer-Verlag | place = Berlin, Heidelberg | doi = 10.1007/978-3-642-00834-4_15 | series = Lecture Notes in Computer Science | isbn = 978-3-642-00833-7 }}</ref>
* Quantum Realism and Haecceity.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Gomatam | first1 = Ravi | title = Levels of Reality: Part 5: Materialism and Immaterialism in India and the West: Varying Vistas, HSPCIC | chapter = Quantum Realism and Haecceity |editor = Partha Ghose | year = 2010 | volume = 12 | issue = 5 | location = New Delhi, India | publisher = CSC, Indian Council of Philosophical Research | isbn = 978-8187586425 }}</ref>
* Popper’s Propensity Interpretation and Heisenberg’s Potentia Interpretation — A comparative assessment.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Gomatam | first1 = Ravi | title = History Of Science And Philosophy Of Science: A Historical Perspective of The Evolution of Ideas In Science | chapter = Popper’s Propensity Interpretation and Heisenberg’s Potentia Interpretation — A comparative assessment |editor = Pradip K. Sengupta | year = 2010 | volume = 13 | issue = 6 | location = New Delhi, India | publisher = CSC, Indian Council of Philosophical Research | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?isbn=8131719308}}</ref>
* Do Hodgson's Propositions Uniquely Characterize Free Will? Invited commentary on a target paper, "A Plain Person's View of Free Will" by David Hodgson.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Do Hodgson's Propositions Uniquely Characterize Free Will? | journal = Journal of Consciousness Studies | year = 2005 | first = Ravi | last = Gomatam | volume = 12 | issue = 1 | pages = 32–40| url = https://philpapers.org/rec/GOMDHP-2}}</ref>
* Physics and Common Sense: Relearning the Connections in the Light of Quantum Theory.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Gomatam | first1 = Ravi | title = Philosophical Consciousness and Scientific Knowledge: Conceptual Linkages and Civilizational Background, HSPCIC | chapter = Physics and Common Sense: Relearning the Connections in the Light of Quantum Theory |editor = Chattopadhyaya, D.P. |editor2=Sen Gupta, A.K. | year = 2004 | location = New Delhi | publisher = CSC, Indian Council of Philosophical Research | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?isbn=818758615X}}</ref>

==Activities and societies==
* Member of [[American Association for Artificial Intelligence]]
* Member of [[American Philosophical Society]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://www.postquantum.blogspot.com Gomatam’s Scientific Blog: PostQuantum]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gomatam, Ravi}}
[[Category:Quantum physicists]]
[[Category:Theoretical physicists]]
[[Category:Communication theorists]]
[[Category:Philosophers of science]]
[[Category:Philosophers of language]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:University of Mumbai alumni]]
[[Category:1950 births]]
[[Category:Annamalai University alumni]]
[[Category:Burroughs Corporation people]]
[[Category:Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani faculty]]

Ravi Gomatam - Revision history

>Polytope4d: Fixed Typo