Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan was born in Pallom, Kottayam, Travancore, British India.

[5]: 243 [5]: 243 [5]: 250  He married Lalita Rau on December 20, 1954, and they have three sons, Alexander, Arvind (deceased) and Ashok.

He moved to Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and worked there for a brief period with Dr. Homi Bhabha as well as others.

Subsequently, he moved to University of Rochester in New York to work under Prof. Robert Marshak as a graduate student.

[9] He developed a fundamental formalism called dynamical maps to study the theory of open quantum system.

[10] Sudarshan and collaborators initiated the "Quantum theory of charged-particle beam optics", by working out the focusing action of a magnetic quadrupole using the Dirac equation.

In an unpublished letter to The New York Times, Sudarshan calls the "Glauber–Sudarshan representation" a misnomer, adding that "literally all subsequent theoretic developments in the field of Quantum Optics make use of" Sudarshan's work— essentially, asserting that he had developed the breakthrough.

[20][21] In 2007, Prof.Sudarshan told the Hindustan Times, "The 2005 Nobel prize for Physics was awarded for my work, but I wasn't the one to get it.

"[22] Sudarshan also commented on not being selected for the 1979 Nobel, "Steven Weinberg, Sheldon Glashow and Abdus Salam built on work I had done as a 26-year-old student.