Anil Bhardwaj (born 1 June 1967) is an Indian astrophysicist. He is the director of the

Physical Research Laboratory The Physical Research Laboratory ( PRL; Hindi: भौतिक अनुसंधान प्रयोगशाला, IAST: ''Bhoutik Anusandhan Prayogashala'') is a National Research Institute for space and allied sciences, supported mainly ...

(PRL), which is a unit of the

Department of Space The Department of Space (DoS) is an Indian government department responsible for administration of the Indian space programme. It manages several agencies and institutes related to space exploration and space technologies. The Indian space pr ...

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled Amdavad (), is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Early life

Bhardwaj graduated in maths, statistics and physics with honours. He earned his Master of Science degree in physics from

Lucknow University University of Lucknow (informally known as Lucknow University, and LU) is one of the oldest public state university based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. LU's main campus is located at Badshah Bagh, University Road area of the city with a second ...

. He received his Doctorate in applied physics (planetary and space science) in 1992 from the Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University in

Varanasi Varanasi (, also Benares, Banaras ) or Kashi, is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.* * * * The city has a syncretic tradition of I ...

Career

Bhardwaj is the recipient of the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award Shanti or Shanthi may refer to: In Sanskrit * Inner peace, a state of being mentally and spiritually at peace, with enough knowledge and understanding to keep oneself strong in the face of discord or stress * Kshanti, one of the paramitas of Bud ...

in 2007, and was awarded NRC Senior Research Associateship by

US National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Natio ...

in 2003. He worked at

Marshall Space Flight Center Marshall Space Flight Center (officially the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center; MSFC), located in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville postal address), is the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government's ...

, Huntsville, Alabama, from January 2004 to October 2005. He was awarded a fellowship by the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs, Vienna, Austria, in 1996. He is a Fellow of the

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and List of Nobel laureates, Nobel Laureate Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 27 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it ...

, Bangalore;

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three b ...

;

National Academy of Sciences, India The National Academy of Sciences, India, also known as NASI, was established in 1930 and is the oldest science academy of India. It is located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Prof. Meghnad Saha was the founder president. Fellows * Suddhasatwa Bas ...

;

Indian Geophysical Union The Indian Geophysical Union is the Government of India's scientific body responsible for all activities related with Earth Science System such as seismology, magnetism, meteorology, geodesy, volcanology, oceanography, hydrology and tectonophysi ...

; and Kerala Academy of Sciences. He was awarded ISRO Team Excellence Award for Chandrayaan-1 Science and Mission in 2008 and

ISRO The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) is India's national space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), overseen by the Prime Minister o ...

Merit award in 2012. He is a member of

International Academy of Astronautics The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) is a Paris-based non-government association for the field of astronautics. It was founded in Stockholm, Sweden) on August 16, 1960, by Dr. Theodore von Kármán. It was recognised by the United Nation ...

and

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

. He is awarded Nehru Centenary Lecture of Kerala Academy of Sciences (2007), Planetary Science Distinguished Lecture of AOGS, Japan (2014), and the P. R. Pisharoty Memorial Lecture of the Kerala Science Congress (2015) He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award of Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) in 2015 and the international INSA-Vainu Bappu Memorial award in 2016. He won the

Infosys Prize The Infosys Prize is an annual award granted to scientists, researchers, engineers and social scientists of Indian origin (not necessarily born in India) by the Infosys Science Foundation and ranks among the highest monetary awards for researc ...

2016 in the Physical Sciences category for his contributions in the field of Planetary Science and Exploration. Bhardwaj is the Chairman of INSA-

ICSU The International Council for Science (ICSU, after its former name, International Council of Scientific Unions) was an international non-governmental organization devoted to multilateralism, international cooperation in the advancement of scie ...

Committee for

COSPAR The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) was established on October 3, 1958 by the International Council for Science, International Council for Scientific Unions (ICSU) and its first chair was Hildegard Korf Kallmann-Bijl. Among COSPAR's objec ...

, SCOSTEP and

URSI The International Union of Radio Science (abbreviated ''URSI'', after its French name, ) is one of 26 international scientific unions affiliated to the International Council for Science (ICSU). History and objectives URSI was officially crea ...

and vice-chair of

Commission B. He is a member of ISRO and national level committees on planetary and space sciences research in India and future planetary missions. Bhardwaj wrote a chapter for ''Encyclopedia of the Solar System'' (2007; revised in 2014), edited 6 books, wrote invited reviews for international journals, including ''

Reviews of Geophysics ''Reviews of Geophysics'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Geophysical Union. The current editor-in-chief is Fabio Florindo (National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology– ...

'' and has been guest editor of special issues of international journals. He served as the president of Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) Planetary Science Section from 2006 to 2010. He was the editor-in-chief of ''Advances in Geosciences'' from 2005 to 2012, and a member of editorial board of the European journal ''

Planetary and Space Science ''Planetary and Space Science'' (P&SS), published 15 times per year, is a peer-reviewed scientific journal established in 1959. It publishes original research articles along with short communications (letters). The main topic is Solar System proc ...

'' from 2007 to 2009, ''Bulletin of Astronomical Society of India'', and ''

Current Science ''Current Science'' is an English-language peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It was established in 1932 and is published by the Current Science Association along with the Indian Academy of Sciences. According to the ''Journal Cit ...

''. He serves as the associate editor of

Advances in Space Research ''Advances in Space Research'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that is published 24 times per year by Elsevier. It was established in 1981 and is the official journal of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR). The editor-in-chief is Pasc ...

, and as a member of editorial board of the European journal ''

Space Science Reviews ''Space Science Reviews'' is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal of space science Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dime ...

'' and ''Molecular Astrophysics''.

Research

Bhardwaj's research interests include theoretical and observational studies of planetary surfaces, atmospheres,

ionosphere The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays ...

s and their coupling with magnetospheric plasma and solar wind.

Principal Investigator

Bhardwaj was the principal investigator on various experiments on multiple space missions. These missions include the Chandrayaan-mission – the first Indian Lunar Mission, the first Indian

Mars Orbiter Mission Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), unofficially known as ''Mangalyaan'' (Sanskrit: 'Mars', 'Craft, Vehicle'), is a space probe orbiting Mars since 24 September 2014. It was launched on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ...

(MOM) and the

Chandrayaan-2 Chandrayaan-2 (; from Sanskrit: , "Moon" and , "craft, vehicle") is the second lunar exploration mission developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) after Chandrayaan-1. It consists of a lunar orbiter, the ''Vikram'' lunar l ...

mission. Experiments include the Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyzer (SARA) experiment, the MENCA experiment and the CHACE-2 experiment. He was principal investigator and co-investigator on many observation programs with

Chandra X-ray Observatory The Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), is a Flagship-class space telescope launched aboard the during STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999. Chandra is sensitive to X-ray sources ...

and

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...

of NASA;

XMM-Newton ''XMM-Newton'', also known as the High Throughput X-ray Spectroscopy Mission and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission, is an X-ray space observatory launched by the European Space Agency in December 1999 on an Ariane 5 rocket. It is the second corners ...

X-ray Observatory of ESA; and Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT) of India).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhardwaj, Anil Indian space scientists Indian astrophysicists Indian physicists 20th-century Indian physicists Space programme of India Indian Space Research Organisation people Indian lunar exploration programme University of Lucknow alumni Scientists from Lucknow Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy People from Aligarh district 1967 births Living people Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences Fellows of the National Academy of Sciences, India Fellows of the Indian Geophysical Union Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean & Planetary Sciences Planetary scientists