People from IUCAA

Prof. Ajit Kembhavi : Professor Ajit Kembhavi is well known for his contributions to theoretical astrophysics and observational astronomy. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, and had a position there for many years until he moved to IUCAA as a founding member. He has interests in high energy astrophysics, extragalactic observations over a whole range of wavelengths and data analysis. Professor Kembhavi has been responsible for the planning and development of the IUCAA computer centre and computer network, which is recognized as one of the best in the country. He is an expert in the use of computers for varied applications including data analysis and image processing. He has developed data centres and has been responsible for setting up the ERNET node at IUCAA. Professor Kembhavi is the Principal Investigator of the Virtual Observatory - India project.

Prof. Jayant Narlikar: Professor J.V. Narlikar is a distinguished astrophysicist and cosmologist of great international repute. He has made seminal contributions to these subjects. After spending many years at the University of Cambridge, England and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, Professor J.V. Narlikar moved to Pune to set up IUCAA of which he has been the Director since its founding in 1988. Professor Narlikar has made important contributions to the planning and setting up of institutions, observatories and computing facilities. He has contributed immensely to the spread of research and teaching in astronomy and astrophysics in India. He is known for his involvement with the popularization of science in India and abroad.

Sarah Ponrathnam: Ms Sarah Ponrathnam is in-charge of the computer systems and network in IUCAA. She is a trained computer scientist with immense experience in computer programs, software development, systems management and the setting up of networks and communication links. She has worked with a whole range of computer hardware, operating systems and applications. She has developed software for the management and use of large astronomical databases.

Pallavi Kulkarni: Ms Pallavi Kulkarni has obtained her B.E. Computers degree from Pune University in 2001.

Jayant Gupchup: Jayant Gupchup has obtained his B.E. Computers degree from VJTI College, Mumbai University in 2003.

People from Persistent Systems Pvt. Ltd.

Dr. Anand Deshpande: Dr. Anand Deshpande is the Founder and Managing Director of Persistent Systems. He obtained his B. Tech. in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, and his M. S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Indiana University, Bloomington, where he worked on implementations of nested relational databases. After a short stint in Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Palo Alto, California, he returned to India to establish Persistent Systems. Over the last 11 years Dr. Deshpande has been active in the database community in India.

T. M. Vijayaraman: Vijayaraman obtained his M.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Madras in 1976 and then joined National Centre for Software Development and Computing Techniques (NCSDCT) at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai. When NCSDCT became an autonomous institution called the National Centre for Software Technology (NCST) in 1986, Vijayaraman joined the Database Division there. He was a visitor to Persistent Systems from 1997 April until he joined the company in October 1998. His areas of interest and work experience are in databases and object oriented systems.

Shridhar Shukla: Dr. Shridhar Shukla obtained his B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT, Bombay in 1983, M.S. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech in 1985 and Ph.D. in Computer Science from North Carolina State University in 1990. He worked as Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Naval Post Graduate School, Monterey California until April 1995 when he returned to India. Dr. Shukla is involved in Workflow, Distributed Computing and Directory Services projects at PSPL.

A. Balachandran: He obtained his B. E. from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1982 and his Ph.D. from IIT, Bombay in 1992. He worked with ORG Systems, Baroda and TRDDC before joining PSPL in 1994. Dr. Balachandran specializes in Database implementations, optimization, compiler implementations.

Hrishikesh Hegde: Hrishikesh Hegde obtained his M.Tech. from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

Sonali Kale: Sonali obtained her M.C.S. degree from Pune University.

P.R. Krishnan: Krishnan has obtained his Master of Computer Application degree from the Computer Science Department of University of Pune.

Vasudev Navelkar: Vasudev Navelkar has done has obtained his M.Tech. from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

People from other organizations:

Dr. Jayant Murthy, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore. Jayant Murthy is an Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bangalore. His primary research activities are related to space-based missions and he is currently working on the UVIT telescope for the ASTROSAT mission. Jayant is co-P.I. for the TAUVEX mission which is under consideration for a launch on GSAT-4 in mid 2004. Jayant obtained his PhD from the Johns Hopkins University in 1987 based on studies of nearby hydrogen and deuterium using the IUE satellite. Since then he was at NASA/GSFC and then back to Johns Hopkins. He has spent the last 15 years in using data from space missions to investigate the interstellar medium. He has also been involved in the planning and launch of several UV spacecraft. Recently, he has developed an interest in large astronomical databases and their use and visualization. These are particularly suited to the Indian context where computers and software expertise are abundant. More information about Jayant and his interests is available at http://203.196.144.99