Thiruvananthapuram: Renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist Professor Thanu Padmanabhan died of cardiac arrest on Friday. He was 64.

He was awarded the Kerala Sastra Puraskaram, an award instituted by the Government of Kerala to honour distinguished scientists of Kerala origin, this year.

Born in 1957, Professor Padmanabhan was known for his research on dark energy and gravity.

He was a gold medalist at the Thiruvananthapuram University College during his graduation and post graduation.

He was a Distinguished Professor at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, (IUCAA) at Pune, India. Prof Padmanabhan was awarded the Padma Shri in 2007.    

He is survived by wife Vasanthi Padmanabhan and daughter Hamsa Padmanabhan.

He wrote over 300 papers in international journals and also authored several books.

"Today is one of the saddest days in the history of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics and the Indian scientific community. Professor Thanu Padmanabhan, a distinguished professor at IUCAA, passed away this morning as a result of a cardiac arrest," Somak Raychaudhury, director of IUCAA, said in a social media post.

Taking to Twitter, K Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Union government, said, "Shocked to hear of the passing of Professor Thanu Padmanabhan @IUCAApune. His research linking general relativity and thermodynamics in new ways, and in other areas, has been widely recognised. Scholar, communicator, extraordinary scientist, friend to many. He will be much missed."