Artwork by Akshita Arora

From conversation on:
Jan 22, 2022

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“Science is like a Pandora box – It is a never ending quest” Quoting Prof. Joshi from our conversation with him, where he simply yet elegantly points out the most fundamental idea of science – more the questions your try to answer, the more you find ‘yet to be’ answered. Curiosity is the true nature of science and it can never walk on a single line, it demands multiple facets to pool in together to unravel the mysteries or to even create newer ones. It seeks adventure, exploration, invention and diversification. Perhaps, one of the most direct field of science that bring out these ideas is Astronomy – where we indulge in quest of our own universe only to find how much more is yet to be understood. Prof. Joshi's research explores vast and varied fields of astronomy and astrophysics, mainly addressing the questions about neutron stars and pulsars, and his expertise spans further beyond to building extremely elaborate and detailed instruments & facilities like the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) to delve deeper into those questions. After being trained as an electrical engineer at IIT Roorkee, Prof. Joshi went on to pursue his doctoral work in astronomy and astrophysics, and has produced very vital research works, along with making seminal contributions to building the GMRT facility with the veteran Prof. Govind Swarup. His deep understanding of the principles of fundamental physics is as deftly complemented by his expertise in the fields of engineering and instrumentation, bringing out a nourishing world-view and the essence of scientific explorations. Tune in to the second part of our recent conversation with Prof. Joshi where we discuss upon what amazements contribute to living a life of scientific pursuits, the need for multidisciplinary influences for diving into the novel research directions, and how building on fundamental sciences changes the world, one step at a time, just as how it should be.

Prof. Bhal Chandra Joshi graduated with a bachelor in technology in Electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, and went on to complete his masters at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai. He then pursued his doctoral work in the field of astronomy and astrophysics, and has been associated with the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics or NCRA by TIFR in Pune, for the longest part of his career, where he is currently based at, and is a very active researcher. His fundamental research addresses the longstanding questions about neutron star systems, and specifically pulsars in involved perspectives. Along with this, a major part of his career and work with the well-renowned veteran and stalwart of radio astronomy in India Prof. Govind Swarup was dedicated towards building the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT),which is the long-time world’s largest radio-telescope in the given frequency range that it addresses, and is truly a marvel of the expertise of science and technology development in India.