Prof. Jagadishwar Mahanty Lecture Series in Physics has been instituted by Dr. Siddharth Mahanty in memory of his father, Prof. Jagadishwar Mahanty, who was a faculty member of the Physics Department at IIT Kanpur from 1961-1972. Prof. Mahanty made important contributions to Condensed Matter Physics, particularly, to the study of many-body physics, lattice dynamics, van-der-Waals interactions and electronic structure of solids. After his M. Sc. in Physics in Calcutta University, Prof. Mahanty worked for several years at the National Physical Laboratory. In 1956, he went to the University of Maryland, USA for his doctoral degree. After completing his PhD in 1960, he joined Punjab University, Chandigarh and subsequently joined the Physics department of IIT Kanpur in 1961. He was instrumental in shaping the Physics department during its infancy. He was the Head of Physics department from 1967 to 1972.