Dr. Rajaram Nityananda
Chairman, BOG, NIT-T

 

Official address: National Centre for Radio Astrophysics

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research,

Post Bag 3, PUNE 411007

Tel: 020 25719000 (EPABX) -25719447 (direct)

Fax : +91-20-2569 7257

e-mail : rajaram@ncra.tifr.res.in

 

 

Academic         SSLC (Secondary School Leaving Certificate) 1962

Besant Theosophical High School, Madras

 

PUC (Pre-University Course) 1964 - First Class

Vivekananda College, University of Madras

 

B.Sc. (Physics) 1968 - First Class with distinction,

Vivekananda College, University of Madras

 

M.Sc. (Physics) 1969 - Distinction, First Rank

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

 

Ph.D.(Physics)1977 Bangalore University, Bangalore

 

1969-75: Materials Science Division, National

Aeronautical Laboratory, Bangalore.

 

Magnetic neutron diffraction and the optical properties of liquid crystals (theoretical), and on the antiferromagnetism of chromium alloys under pressure (experimental)

 

Submitted a thesis entitled “Study of some novel optical effects in periodic structures” to the Bangalore University under the supervision of Dr. S. Ramaseshan.

 

Positions held:

 

1975 - 2000 Raman Research Institute, Bangalore (Professor from 1995)

 

March 2000-Feb 2010 Centre Director, NCRA

 

June 2004-Feb 2010 Additional charge as Observatory Director, GMRT

 

March 2010 - Present Senior Professor, NCRA-TIFR

 

Research topics after PhD:

 

Theory of resistivity of a binary liquid mixture near the critical point

Phase comparison between different polarisation states in optics, and the identification of the Pancharatnam phase with the geometric phase.

The interaction between anisotropic defects in liquid crystals formulated as a scale anomaly, enabling calculations in terms of single defect properties.

Maximum entropy method of image reconstruction, as applied both to radio astronomy and crystal structure analysis.

Interaction between the out flowing radiation and in falling matter in accretion models of quasars.

Effect of multiple scattering by stars and galaxies when distant quasars are gravitationally lensed.

General properties of gravitational lensing in terms of wavefronts.

Speckle statistics.

Gravitational dynamics on different scales – orbit determination of a pulsar in a binary system, rotating flattened star clusters, galaxies and cosmological clustering.

Schemes for polarisation calibration and for removal of radio frequency interference which has been used in the GMRT epoch of Reionixation experiment

 

Teaching:

 

Taught in the Joint Astronomy Programme, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore since 1982 to 2010 (approximately 15 courses, some more than once, on topics such as Survey of Astronomy, Radiative Processes, Dynamical Processes, Interstellar Medium, Physical cosmology, statistical methods...

 

Visiting Professor at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore from April 1989 to April 1995. Taught Statistical Physics (twice) and QM I and II (once each).

 

Taught at IISER Pune (two full courses, Symmetry and QMII in 2003 and 2009) Taught one third of basic astronomy for second year students, ten lectures at IISER Mohali for two successive years (2008-2009).

 

Taught a full course (30 lectures) on gravitation and cosmology at CMI, Chennai, (2009)

 

Taught six courses of 15-20 lectures each in the NCRA-IUCAA graduate school from 2000- 2008 on quantum physics, electrodynamics,

 

Short three to five lecture courses in summer schools and workshops on statistical methods, survey of astronomy, etc...(About half a dozen)

 

Extended academic visits:

 

Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, October 1983-Feb 1984 and July 1994

 

Institute of Theoretical physics, UCSB, invited to programme on active galactic nuclei March – June 1987

 

Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, July-October 1987

 

IUCAA Pune, May-October 1998

 

Canadian Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, July 1994 and June-July 2009

 

Professional:

 

Served as a referee, and since January 1982 as Editorial Board Member for Pramana (a Physics Journal published by the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore), and as Associate Editor from August 1989, Editor from July 1992 to July 1999. Editorial Board Member, Resonance, (1996-2000) Editor, Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy,  Indian Academy of Sciences (2004-2010), currently Associate Editor of JApA.

 

Elected to Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc) - 1986.Elected to the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) - 1998. Elected to National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI) - 2000. Served on the Sectional Committee for Physics, IASc - 1989-1992, and Council of IASc. – 1989 - 1995.

 

Served as Dean (1994-96), Chairman of Theoretical Physics Group (1996- 98), Chairman of Astronomy & Astrophysics Group (1998 -2000) at RRI.

 

Served on:

Steering Committee of the Australia Telescope National Facility, 2006-2009

Governing Board of IUCAA 2000-2010

Governing Council of ARIES 2007- present

Academic Council, CMI, Chennai 2010-present

 

PhD. Students supervised

 

S.N.Karbelkar (1984-1989) - (Speckle Interferometry),

Ph.D. degree awarded in 1990 (faculty, BITS, Pilani)

 

S.Sridhar (1985-1989) - (Galactic Dynamics).

Ph.D. degree awarded in 1990 (faculty, RRI)

 

Somnath Bharadwaj (1989-1996) - (Cosmological Clustering),

Ph.D. degree awarded in 1996 (faculty, I.I.T.Kharagpur)

 

All the three theses submitted to the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

 

Project Students supervised, last decade

Typically each of these projects was in areas of image reconstruction / optics / dynamics, and involved interacting about twice or thrice a week with M.Sc. level or sometimes with Ph.D. level students from Pune University or elsewhere for about six months. The areas were chosen either for their relevance to our activities at GMRT or out of my own curiosity. Most of them are unpublished except as report placed in our library, partly because the students have limited time - about half would probably be of the standard of short papers.

 

1. Statistics of triggered gaussian noise

Nasifa Aftab, Pune University, 2000

 

2. Simulation of cross polarised response of a GMRT antenna at 150 MHz

Swapnonil Banerjee, NCRA 2000

 

3. Ray tracing for a novel reflector configuration

Kanchan Kate, Pune University, 2001

 

4. Exact solution of a one-dimensional galaxy model

Vanchana Rathore, Delhi University, 2001

 

5. Fast algorithms for phase and amplitude calibration

Urvashi Rao, BITS Pilani, 2002.

 

6. Holography of GMRT antennas

Abhirup Datta, Pune University, 2003

 

7. Decay of an asymmetric top by electric dipole radiation

Devadatt Majumdar, Pune University, 2004-05

 

8. Efficient algorithms for orbit determination from sparse binary pulsar data

Bhashwati Bhattacharya, NCRA, 2004 - 05 (published)

 

9. Non-Rayleigh Statistics of Maxima in a speckle pattern

Akila Jeeson Daniel, NCRA, 2004

 

Selected invited talks over the last decade

 

1. Radio waves: messengers on earth from the space

Platinum Jubilee lecture at the Indian Science Congress, Lucknow

January 3, 2002.

 

2. Gravity and Light

8th Vaidya-Raichaudhuri Endowment Award Lecture

December 12, 2002.

 

3. Gravity and Light

University of Melbourne

August 14, 2003.

 

4. High ambitions at Low frequencies: The GMRT and beyond

Meeting of Indian Academy of Science, Varanasi

November 26, 2004.

 

5. Theoretical physics and radio astronomy

Canadian Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics

University of Toronto, Canada

June 12 2009

 

6 GMRT: status, upgrades, results

Very Large Array, New Mexico, USA

Colloquium 26 June 2009

 

7. Galactic dynamics – an introduction for physicists

Perimeter Institute, Waterloo, Canada

July 14 2009

 

8 The GMRT: colloquium, Carnegie Mellon University

Department of Astronomy

July 23 2009

 

Text book chapters

 

1. Rotational Motion, Physics textbook for Standard XI, NCERT, New Delhi.

 

2. Wave Optics, Physics textbook for Standard XII, NCERT, New Delhi. (Both ca. 2002)

List of Publications