The Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) is an autonomous institution set up by the

University Grants Commission of India University Grants Commission (UGC; ISO: ''Viś‍vavidyālaya Anudāna Āyōga'') is a statutory body under Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Government of India. It was set up in accordance to the UGC Act 1956 and is c ...

to promote

nucleation In thermodynamics, nucleation is the first step in the formation of either a new Phase (matter), thermodynamic phase or Crystal structure, structure via self-assembly or self-organization within a substance or mixture. Nucleation is typically def ...

and growth of active groups in

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

and

astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline, James Keeler, said, astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the ...

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 ...

n universities. IUCAA is located in the

University of Pune Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), formerly the University of Pune, is a public state university located in the city of Pune, India. It was established in 1949, and is spread over a campus in the neighbourhood of Ganeshkhind. The uni ...

campus next to the

National Centre for Radio Astrophysics National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

, which operates the

Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope The Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), located near Narayangaon, Pune in India, is an array of thirty fully steerable parabolic radio telescopes of 45 metre diameter, observing at metre wavelengths. It is the largest and most sensitive rad ...

. IUCAA has a campus designed by Indian architect

Charles Correa Charles Mark Correa (1 September 1930 – 16 June 2015) was an Indian architect and urban planner based in Mumbai, India. Credited with the creation of modern architecture in post-Independent India, he was celebrated for his sensitivity to the ...

History

After the founding of the

(GMRT) by Prof.

Govind Swarup Govind Swarup (March 23, 1929 – September 7, 2020) was a pioneer in radio astronomy. In addition to research contributions in multiple areas of astronomy and astrophysics, he was a driving force behind the building of "ingenious, innovative ...

, a common research facility for

and

was proposed by Dr.

Yash Pal Yash Pal (26 November 1926 – 24 July 2017) was an Indian scientist, educator and educationist. He was known for his contributions to the study of cosmic rays, as well as for being an institution-builder. In his later years, he became one of ...

of the planning commission. Working on this idea, astrophysicist Prof.

Jayant Narlikar Jayant Vishnu Narlikar (19 July 1938 – 20 May 2025) was an Indian astrophysicist who performed research on alternative cosmology. He was also an author who wrote textbooks on cosmology, popular science books, and science fiction novels and ...

, along with Ajit Kembhavi and

Naresh Dadhich Naresh Dadhich (born September 1, 1944) is a theoretical physicist, formerly at Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA). He was also the director of IUCAA until August 31, 2009. He held the M.A. Ansari Chair in Theoretical ...

set up IUCAA within the Pune University campus in 1988. Entrance of IUCAA

In 2002, IUCAA initiated a nationwide campaign to popularize astronomy and astrophysics in colleges and universities. IUCAA arranged visitor programs for universities in

Nagpur Nagpur (; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Nāgapura'') is the second capital and third-largest city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is called the heart of India because of its central geographical location. It is the largest and most populated city i ...

(

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

Thiruvalla Thiruvalla, () also spelled Tiruvalla, is a Municipalities of Kerala, municipality in Pathanamthitta district, Kerala, India. The town is spread over an area of and has a population of 52,883 people, down from 56,837 in 2001. It is also the H ...

(

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

Siliguri Siliguri (, ; ), also known as Shiliguri, is a major Tier ii cities in india, tier-II city in West Bengal. It forms the twin cities, Twin Cities with the neighbouring city of Jalpaiguri. The city spans areas of the Darjeeling district, Darjeel ...

(

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

) and others, along with a tie-up with the Ferguson college,

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

In 2004, IUCAA set up the ''Muktangan Vidnyan Shodhika'' (Exlporatorium), a science popularization initiative, with a grant from the

Pu La Deshpande Purushottam Laxman Deshpande (alternatively written as Pu La Deshpande; 8 November 1919 – 12 June 2000), popularly known by his initials ("Pu. La.") or as P. L. Deshpande, was a Marathi writer and humorist from Maharashtra. He was also an ac ...

foundation. The center is open to all school students from Pune. IUCAA was declared the nodal center for India to coordinate the year-long celebrations for the International Year of Astronomy. IUCAA was headed for its first decade by Prof.

, followed by Prof.

and Prof. Ajit Kembhavi. From September 2015, the Director is Prof.

Somak Raychaudhury Somak Raychaudhury () is an Indian astrophysicist. He is the Vice-Chancellor at Ashoka University and was the Director of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune. He is on leave from Presidency University, Ko ...

Research

Scientists at IUCAA carry out research in a wide range of areas in astronomy, astrophysics and physics. IUCAA has active research groups in fields like classical and

quantum gravity Quantum gravity (QG) is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics. It deals with environments in which neither gravitational nor quantum effects can be ignored, such as in the v ...

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

gravitational waves Gravitational waves are oscillations of the gravitational field that travel through space at the speed of light; they are generated by the relative motion of gravitating masses. They were proposed by Oliver Heaviside in 1893 and then later by H ...

optical Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultravio ...

and

radio astronomy Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies Astronomical object, celestial objects using radio waves. It started in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation coming from the Milky Way. Subsequent observat ...

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

physics and instrumentation.

Facilities

IUCAA, along with

Persistent Systems Persistent Systems is an Indian multinational technology services company based in Pune. It is primarily engaged in cloud computing, internet of things, endpoint security, big data analytics and software product engineering services. History ...

, Pune, operates the Virtual Observatory project. The observatory provides users access to raw observational data along with advanced processing software designed by engineers at Persistent. IUCAA also maintains Girawali Observatory which is about 80 km from Pune city, off Pune-Nasik Road and near the historical

Junnar Junnar (Marathi pronunciation: ͡ʒunːəɾ is a city in the Pune district of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The city has history dating back to the first millennium. The nearby fort of Shivneri was the birthplace of Maratha king Shivaji ...

town. In addition to catering to the needs of astronomers in general, this observatory is unique in setting aside a certain amount of time specifically for training as well as observational proposals arising from Indian Universities. The telescope has a

primary mirror A primary mirror (or primary) is the principal light-gathering surface (the objective) of a reflecting telescope. Description The primary mirror of a reflecting telescope is a spherical, parabolic, or hyperbolic shaped disks of polished ...

of diameter 2 meter, f/3 and a secondary of 60 cm, f/10. IUCAA Faint Object Spectrograph & Camera (IFOSC) is the main instrument available on the telescope's direct

Cassegrain Cassegrain may refer to * Cassegrain reflector, a design used in telescopes * Cassegrain antenna, a type of parabolic antenna * Cassegrain (crater), on the Moon * a Belgian canned vegetables producer now part of Bonduelle S.A. People : * Guillaum ...

port currently. IUCAA, along with the

Raman Research Institute The Raman Research Institute (RRI) is an institute for scientific research located in Bengaluru, India. It was founded by Nobel laureate Sir C. V. Raman in 1948. Although it began as an institute privately owned by C. V. Raman, it became an ...

and

Indian Institute of Astrophysics The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), with its headquarters in Bengaluru, is an autonomous research institute wholly funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. IIA conducts research primarily in the areas of ...

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

, declared a proposal to take a ten percent stake in the Large Telescope Project, which would allow Indian astronomers access to major upcoming observatories such as the

Giant Magellan Telescope The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is a ground-based, extremely large telescope currently under construction at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile's Atacama Desert. With a primary mirror diameter of 25.4 meters, it is expected to be the largest G ...

(GMT), the

Thirty Meter Telescope The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is a planned extremely large telescope (ELT) proposed to be built on Mauna Kea, on the Hawaii (island), island of Hawai'i. The TMT would become the largest visible-light telescope on Mauna Kea. Scientists hav ...

(TMT) and the

European Extremely Large Telescope The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is an astronomical observatory under construction. When completed, it will be the world's largest optical and near-infrared extremely large telescope. Part of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) agency, ...

(EELT).

Science popularization

The SciPop initiative was set up by Prof. Jayant Narlikar along with N. C. Rana and Arvind Paranjpe. SciPop, based out of the Muktangan Vidnyan Shodhika building, provides educational facilities for school students, teachers and

amateur astronomer Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astronomers m ...

s. IUCAA organizes the open Science day program every year on 28 February, in which members of the general public can visit the institute to take a look at ongoing research and contemporary work happening elsewhere in the world. IUCAA was one of the few Indian research institutes to start a science popularization program, and other organisations such as the Indian Institute of Science, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, and

TIFR Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) is a leading research Institute under the Department of Atomic Energy of the Government of India. It is a public deemed university located at Navy Nagar, Colaba in Mumbai. It also has a centres in B ...

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

started similar public outreach programmes in the wake of its success.

People

Notable people associated with IUCAA: *

, founding director *

, physicist, 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 ...

, 2nd Director * Ajit Kembhavi, 3rd Director *

Thanu Padmanabhan Thanu Padmanabhan (10 March 1957 – 17 September 2021) was an Indian theoretical physicist and cosmologist whose research spanned a wide variety of topics in gravitation, structure formation in the universe and quantum gravity. He published ...

Padma Shri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. In ...

award-winning astrophysicist *

, 4th Director * Sanjeev Dhurandhar, gravitational-wave physicist and science advisor to the

IndIGO InterGlobe Aviation Limited (d/b/a IndiGo), is an India, Indian airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is the largest List of airlines of India, airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 64.1% domestic market ...

consortium *

Raghunathan Srianand Raghunathan Srianand (born February 1, 1969) is an Indian Cosmology, cosmologist, Astrophysics, astrophysicist and a scientist at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA). Known for his research on Redshift-space distort ...

, astrophysicist and

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Sir Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (21 February 1894 – 1 January 1955) was an Indian colloid chemist, academic and scientific administrator. The first director-general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Bhatnagar is revered ...

laureate * Kanak Saha, astrophysicist and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate.

Logo

The logo of IUCAA is a symmetric 8-crossing Carrick mat knot, and a mirror image to that of the

International Guild of Knot Tyers The International Guild of Knot Tyers (or IGKT) is a worldwide association for people with an interest in knots and knot tying. Formation and beginning Officially established in 1982, the founding members were initially drawn together by th ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Inter-University Centre For Astronomy And Astrophysics Research institutes in Pune Savitribai Phule Pune University Astronomy organizations Research institutes established in 1988 1988 establishments in Maharashtra