Introduction
Avadh Behari Bhatia (1921–September 27, 1984) was an Indian-Canadian physicist who studied “electronic transport theory and the study of diffraction of light by ultrasonic waves” and whose research benefited condensed matter physicists and astrophysicists.
Education and early career
Bhatia was born in India in 1921. He studied at the Universities of Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh and the University of Liverpool, where he met his second wife (under Herbert Fröhlich) in the UK. The couple were married in Rajasthan, India , and lived in Gujarat for two years before Dr. Bhatia went to work at the University of Edinburgh under Max Born.
Career in Canada
His immigration to Canada was made possible by a fellowship from the National Research Council.
Bhatia joined the University of Alberta in 1955 and was director of the Theoretical Physics Institute there from 1964 to 1969.
He wrote in a chapter in Principles of Optics on the diffraction of light by ultrasonic waves and his book Ultrasonic Absorption was published by Oxford University Press in 1967. He co-authored Mechanics of Deformable Media with R.N. Singh. Some of his publications are as A.B. Bhatia.
Personal life
Bhatia’s second wife, Helen Forrester, was a British-born Canadian novelist and memoirist. They met in Liverpool. They had one son, Robert Bhatia. Robert wrote a book about his parents and their relationship called Passage Across the Mersey (2017).
Death
Bhatia died after a long illness and is buried in Saint Anthony Cemetery, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.