Chandra Wickramasinghe

Chandra Wickramasinghe
Chandra Wickramasinghe at the University of Buckingham
Born	Nalin Chandra Wickramasinghe (1939-01-20) 20 January 1939 (age 78) Colombo, British Ceylon
Citizenship	British
Fields	Astrobiology Astronomy Mathematics
Institutions	Cambridge University University College Cardiff University of Cardiff University of Buckingham
Alma mater	Royal College, Colombo University of Ceylon (BSc) Cambridge University (PhD, ScD)
Doctoral advisor	Fred Hoyle
Known for	Organic composition of cosmic dust
Notable awards	Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge University (1963–1973) Vidya Jyothi (1992)

Nalin Chandra Wickramasinghe (born 20 January 1939) is a Sri Lankan-born British mathematician, astronomer and astrobiologist. His research interests include the interstellar medium, infrared astronomy, light scattering theory, applications of solid-state physics to astronomy, the early Solar System, comets, astrochemistry, the origin of life and astrobiology. A student and collaborator of Fred Hoyle, the pair worked jointly for over 40 years as influential proponents of panspermia. In 1974 they proposed the hypothesis that some dust in interstellar space was largely organic.

Hoyle and Wickramasinghe have advanced the argument that various outbreaks of illnesses on Earth are of extraterrestrial origins, including the 1918 flu pandemic and certain outbreaks of polio and mad cow disease. For the 1918 flu pandemic they hypothesised that cometary dust brought the virus to Earth simultaneously at multiple locations—a view almost universally dismissed by external experts on this pandemic. Claims connecting terrestrial disease and extraterrestrial pathogens have been rejected by the scientific community.

Wickramasinghe has written more than 30 books about astrophysics and related topics; he has made appearances on radio, television and film, and he writes online blogs and articles. He has appeared on BBC Horizon, UK Channel 5 and the History Channel. He appeared on the 2013 Discovery Channel program "Red Rain". He has an association with Daisaku Ikeda, president of the Buddhist sect Soka Gakkai International, that led to the publication of a dialogue with him, first in Japanese and later in English, on the topic of Space and Eternal Life.