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Ajit Kembhavi
Born (1950-08-16) 16 August 1950 (age 73)
Hubli, Karnataka
NationalityIndian
Alma materTata Institute of Fundamental Research
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics, Astronomy, Computer Science
InstitutionsInter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics
Doctoral advisorJayant Narlikar

Ajit Kembhavi (born 16 August 1950) is an Indian astrophysicist. He is presently a Professor Emeritus at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, (IUCAA) at Pune, India[1]. He also serves as the Vice President of the International Astronomical Union[2].

Early Life & Career

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Ajit Kembhavi was born in 1950 in a town named Hubli in Karnataka and spent a major part of his childhood there. During his time spent at Hubli, Ajit was a neighbor to Gangubai Hangal, the well known Indian Classical musician. This helped Ajit acquire a keen taste in Indian classical music.

After his schooling and junior college education in Hubli, he moved to Mumbai to finish his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Physics from the Ruia college, affiliated to the Bombay University. Later, he joined the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) for his Ph.D. in Physics with the renowned Indian astrophysicist and cosmologist Jayant Narlikar as his thesis supervisor.

Later, he moved to England to work as a postdoctoral fellow under Lord Martin Rees at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge. After this, he returned as a Research Fellow to his alma mater TIFR. In 1988, when IUCAA was formed, he joined as as Asst. Professor, and later became the Dean of Visitor Programmes in 1997, a position he held for 12 years until 2009. He took up the directorship of IUCAA in 2009[3] and remained the director until 2014[4] before being succeeded by Somak Raychaudhury.

He was elected as the Vice President of the IAU[5]'s Office for Astronomy and Development (OAD) and also serves on the Space Commission of India.

Contributions to Indian Astronomy

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Ajit has played a very significant role in the development of astronomy as a research area in the field of Astronomy. As a Dean of Visitor Programmes in IUCAA, he was responsible for the growth and sustenance of several programs held in IUCAA and across India for promotion of astronomical research.

He also conceived and executed the INFONET project under the University Grants Commission (India), which has enabled electronic access to thousands of journals for several universities. As a Directory of IUCAA, he played a lead role in cementing India's participation in several international projects including the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), and the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory LIGO).

A notable contribution by Ajit Kembhavi is in setting up of the Virtual Observatory's India chapter, a project funded by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The Virtual Observatory project enables standardization of methods of access and descriptions of astronomical data sets enabling ease of access to open astronomical data sets. He also served as the Chairman of the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) which oversees Virtual Observatory activities internationally.

Ajit is also a well known science popularizer and has given several public talks and presentations[6] for promoting astronomy among the masses. He has also written a Marathi book 'Nabhaat Hasre Taare'Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page)..

Honors, Awards and Memberships

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  • Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences[7]
  • Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences[8]
  • Former President of the Astronomical Society of India () [9]
  • A Vice President of the International Astronomy Union (2016-present) [10]
  • Former President of the Indian Association of General Relativity and Gravitation [11]
  • Recipient of the UGC Hari Om Vats award for academic interaction with Society (2004).[12]
  • Raja Ramana Fellowship (2017)
  • Former Chairman of the Governing Board of the Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC), New Delhi
  • Member of the Governing Council and Court of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
  • Member of the Space Commission of India[13]

Books

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  • Highlights in Gravitation and Cosmology. Eds. B.R. Iyer, A. Kembhavi, J.V. Narlikar & C.V. Vishveshwara, 1988. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
  • Non Standard Cosmology (Revised Edition). J.V. Narlikar & A.K. Kembhavi, 1988. In Galaxies & Cosmology, Eds. V.M. Canuto & B.G. Elmegreen. Gorden & Breach.
  • Gravitation and Cosmology. Eds. S. Mukherjee, A.R. Prasanna & A.K. Kembhavi, 1992. Wiley Eastern.

  • Starbursts : Triggers, Nature and Evolution. (Proc. of Les Houches School), 1998. Eds. B. Guiderdoni & A.K. Kembhavi. Springer.
  • Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei - An Introduction. A. K. Kembhavi & J.V. Narlikar. 1999. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
  • The Universe - Visions and Perspectives. Eds. N. Dadhich & A. K. Kembhavi, 2000. Kluwer.
  • Nabhat Hasare Taare: A book on Astrophysics of stars in Marathi. A. K. Kembhavi, J. V. Narlikar & Mangala Narlikar. Rajhans Prakashan 2008. A gujarati translation of this book has just been published.

Selected Publications

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References

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  1. ^ List of people working at IUCAA (2011)
  2. ^ IAU individual members page for Ajit K. Kembhavi
  3. ^ Ajit Kembhavi is new director of IUCAA | The Indian Express
  4. ^ Raychaudhury is IUCAA's new director | Times of India
  5. ^ IAU Executive Committee Officers
  6. ^ Public talk - Careers in Astronomy [7th Aug, 2015]
  7. ^ http://www.nasi.org.in/fellows.asp?RsFilter=K
  8. ^ http://www.ias.ac.in/listing/fellows/K
  9. ^ http://www.astron-soc.in/executive_council.php
  10. ^ https://www.iau.org/administration/membership/individual/5472/
  11. ^ Check 'Office Bearers' under the 'Organization' menu for this site: https://www.imsc.res.in/~iagrg/
  12. ^ https://www.ugc.ac.in/page/Honours-and-Awards.aspx#Ashram
  13. ^ http://www.vssc.gov.in/VSSC_V4/index.php/11-public-home/430-space-commission
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Category:20th-century Indian physicists Category:1950 births Category:Living people Category:Scientists from India Category:Tata Institute of Fundamental Research alumni Category:Indian theoretical physicists Category:20th-century Indian astronomers Category:21st-century Indian astronomers Category:21st-century Indian physicists Category:IAU Vice Presidents

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