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Vijay Kumar Kapahi

Vijay Kumar Kapahi (21 January 1944 – 16 March 1999) was an Indian astrophysicist and the director of the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, an autonomous division of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Known for his research on radio galaxies, quasars and observational cosmology, Kapahi was an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies – Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and National Academy of Sciences, India – as well as of the Maharashtra Academy of Sciences. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology for his contributions to physical sciences in 1987.[1][note 1]

Vijay Kumar Kapahi
Born(1944-01-21)21 January 1944
Quetta, British Balochistan
Died16 March 1999(1999-03-16) (aged 55)
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Alma mater
Known forStudies on radio galaxies, quasars and observational cosmology
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Doctoral advisor
Doctoral students

Biography

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Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

Vijay Kumar Kapahi was born on 21 January 1944 at Quetta in British India.[2][note 2] His pre-graduate and graduate studies were completed at St. Joseph's College, Bangalore (then under Mysore University) in 1959 and 1962 respectively before his move to Mumbai where he did a one-year course at BARC Training School.[3] In 1963, he joined the Radio Astronomy Group of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and this gave him the opportunity to work with Govind Swarup, who would later design the Ooty Radio Telescope.[4] During his service at TIFR, he simultaneously pursued his doctoral studies mentored by Swarup and secured a PhD from Bombay University in 1975 for his thesis, Angular structures of extragalactic radio sources and cosmology.[5] The Radio Astronomy Group meanwhile developed into an autonomous division of TIFR, with a new name, National Centre for Radio Astrophysics,[6] and he served as the director of the institution since 1994. He was holding the position and simultaneously serving as a professor at TIFR at the time of his death at the age of 55 on 16 March 1999.[5] In between., he also served as a visiting scientist at Carnegie Institution for Science, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Dwingeloo Radio Observatory.[3]

Legacy

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False-colour image of the nearby radio galaxy Centaurus A.

Kapahi's work was mainly focused on observational cosmology and his work covered the studies of radio galaxies and quasars.[7] During his doctoral studies under the guidance of Govind Swarup, together they developed an imaging technique for capturing rapid images of solar radio bursts[2] and the details were published by way of an article, A simple image forming technique suitable for multifrequency observations of solar radio bursts in Solar Physics journal in 1970.[8] Through his studies with the help of Ooty Radio Telescope, he discovered for the first time in 1975 that radio galaxies were smaller in linear sizes during earlier cosmic epochs.[2] He was one of the first astronomers to study Compact Steep‐Spectrum radio sources and he published a series of articles on the subject during 1981–98.[9][10][11] These studies assisted in the later-day development of a paradigm known as unifying scheme of radio galaxies and quasers[3] which explained the relativistic beaming in nuclear jets of quasars[12] and in integrating the properties of lobe-dominated and core-dominated types of quasars.[5] His work with Very-long-baseline interferometry telescopes helped discover hot spots on the twin-lobes of extragalactic radio sources as well as distant radio galaxies.[3] His studies have been documented by way of a number of articles[13][note 3] and ResearchGate, an online article repository of scientific articles, has listed 101 of them.[14] Besides, he edited five books[3] including Quasars: proceedings of the 119th Symposium of the International Astronomical Union,[15] Lectures on Observational Cosmology,[16] Proceedings of the Workshop Diffuse Thermal and Relativistic Plasma in Galaxy Clusters[17] and Asian-Pacific Astronomy: Proceedings of the 6th Asian- Pacific Regional Meeting on Astronomy of the International Astronomical Union.[18] He also contributed chapters to books published by others[19][20][21] and his work has drawn citations from other scientists.[22][23][24]

Kapahi was directly involved in the establishment of the Ooty Radio Telescope,[25] especially in the development of phase-shifter array.[3] Later, he was involved in the development and establishment of Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope near Pune which was the core theme of two of his articles published in 1991 and 1995 respectively.[26][27] His contributions were reported in the initiation of the Joint Astronomy Programme of the Indian Institute of Science and he was associated with the Astronomical Society of India which he presided from 1997 until his death in 1999.[28] He was also a member of the Indian Physics Association and International Astronomical Union[5] and the doctoral scholars mentored by him included Joydeep Bagchi, Dhruba Jyoti Saikia, Prajval Shastri, C. H. Ishwar-Chandra and Ramana Athreya.[3]

Awards and honors

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The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded Kapahi the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in 1987.[29] He received two more honors in 1987; the Physical Research Laboratory selected him for Hari Om Ashram Prerit Vikram Sarabhai Research Award[5] and the Indian Academy of Sciences elected him as their fellow.[30] He received the Henri Chretien Research Grant Award of the American Astronomical Society in 1991 and became an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy in 1997.[31] He was also an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India[32] and the Maharashtra Academy of Sciences.[3]

Selected bibliography

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Books

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  • Dennis William Sciama; V. K. Kapahi; S. Ramadurai (1967). Lectures on Observational Cosmology. Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Bibcode:1967looc.book.....S.
  • International Astronomical Union. Symposium; Govind Swarup; V. K. Kapahi (1986). Quasars: proceedings of the 119th Symposium of the International Astronomical Union, held in Bangalore, India, December 2–6, 1985. D. Reidel Pub. Co. ISBN 978-90-277-2297-3.
  • V. K. Kapahi (1995). Asian-Pacific Astronomy: Proceedings of the 6th Asian- Pacific Regional Meeting on Astronomy of the International Astronomical Union. Indian Academy of Sciences.
  • V. K. Kapahi (1999). Proceedings of the Workshop Diffuse Thermal and Relativistic Plasma in Galaxy Clusters: Ringberg Castle, Germany, April 19–23, 1999. Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik.

Chapters

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  • Katsuhiko Sato (31 January 1999). Cosmological Parameters and the Evolution of the Universe. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 251–. ISBN 978-0-7923-5459-8.
  • Adelaide Hewitt; Geoffrey Burbidge; Li Zhi Fang (6 December 2012). Observational Cosmology: Proceedings of the 124th Symposium of the International Astronomical Union, Held in Beijing, China, August 25–30, 1986. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 264–. ISBN 978-94-009-3853-3.
  • R. Ekers; C. Fanti; L. Padrielli (6 December 2012). Extragalactic Radio Sources: Proceedings of the 175th Symposium of the International Astronomical Union, Held in Bologna, Italy 10–14 October 1995. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 394–. ISBN 978-94-009-0295-4.

Articles

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Long link – please select award year to see details
  2. ^ Presently in Balochistan, Pakistan
  3. ^ Please see Selected bibliography section

References

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  1. ^ "View Bhatnagar Awardees". Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
  2. ^ a b c "Vijay Kumar Kapahi on Neglected Science". Neglected Science. 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h "A Tribute". Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India. 27: 229. 1999. Bibcode:1999BASI...27..229.
  4. ^ "2007 Grote Reber Medal to Professor Govind Swarup". Australia Telescope National Facility. 2017.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Deceased fellow". Indian National Science Academy. 2017. Archived from the original on 22 October 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  6. ^ "A brief history of NCRA". National Centre for Radio Astrophysics. 2017. Archived from the original on 13 September 2014.
  7. ^ "Brief Profile of the Awardee". Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. 2017. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
  8. ^ G. SwarupV. K. Kapahi (1970). "A simple image forming technique suitable for multifrequency observations of solar radio bursts". Solar Physics. 14 (2): 404–413. Bibcode:1970SoPh...14..404S. doi:10.1007/BF00221326. S2CID 121226985.
  9. ^ O'Dea, Christopher P. (1998). "The Compact Steep-Spectrum and Gigahertz Peaked-Spectrum Radio Sources". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 110 (747): 493–532. Bibcode:1998PASP..110..493O. doi:10.1086/316162.
  10. ^ Saikia, D. J.; Jeyakumar, S.; Salter, C. J.; Thomasson, P.; Spencer, R. E.; Mantovani, F. (2001). "Compact steep-spectrum sources from the S4 sample". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 321 (1): 37–43. arXiv:astro-ph/0009175. Bibcode:2001MNRAS.321...37S. doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04017.x. S2CID 15748503.
  11. ^ V. K. Kapahi, D. G. Banhatti (1983). "The V/Vm test for a sample of compact steepspectrum sources". arXiv:0708.1152.
  12. ^ "Handbook of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Winners" (PDF). Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. 1999.
  13. ^ "Browse by Fellow". Indian Academy of Sciences. 2017.
  14. ^ "On ResearchGate". 2017.
  15. ^ International Astronomical Union. Symposium; Govind Swarup; V. K. Kapahi (1986). Quasars: proceedings of the 119th Symposium of the International Astronomical Union, held in Bangalore, India, December 2–6, 1985. D. Reidel Pub. Co. ISBN 978-90-277-2297-3.
  16. ^ Dennis William Sciama; V. K. Kapahi; S. Ramadurai (1967). Lectures on Observational Cosmology. Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Bibcode:1967looc.book.....S.
  17. ^ V. K. Kapahi (1999). Proceedings of the Workshop Diffuse Thermal and Relativistic Plasma in Galaxy Clusters: Ringberg Castle, Germany, April 19–23, 1999. Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik.
  18. ^ V. K. Kapahi (1995). Asian-Pacific Astronomy: Proceedings of the 6th Asian- Pacific Regional Meeting on Astronomy of the International Astronomical Union. Indian Academy of Sciences.
  19. ^ Katsuhiko Sato (31 January 1999). Cosmological Parameters and the Evolution of the Universe. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 251–. ISBN 978-0-7923-5459-8.
  20. ^ Adelaide Hewitt; Geoffrey Burbidge; Li Zhi Fang (6 December 2012). Observational Cosmology: Proceedings of the 124th Symposium of the International Astronomical Union, Held in Beijing, China, August 25–30, 1986. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 264–. ISBN 978-94-009-3853-3.
  21. ^ R. Ekers; C. Fanti; L. Padrielli (6 December 2012). Extragalactic Radio Sources: Proceedings of the 175th Symposium of the International Astronomical Union, Held in Bologna, Italy 10–14 October 1995. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 394–. ISBN 978-94-009-0295-4.
  22. ^ D.S. Heeschen; C.M. Wade (6 December 2012). Extragalactic Radio Sources. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 400–. ISBN 978-94-009-7781-5.
  23. ^ Wolfgang Kundt (6 December 2012). Astrophysical Jets and Their Engines. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 183–. ISBN 978-94-009-3927-1.
  24. ^ International Astronomical Union. Symposium; Marc A. Aaronson; Sándor Szalay (31 July 1988). Large Scale Structures of the Universe. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 368–. ISBN 978-90-277-2744-2.
  25. ^ "Ooty Radio Telescope". National Centre for Radio Astrophysics. 2017.[permanent dead link‍]
  26. ^ G. Swarup, S. Ananthakrishnan, V. K. Kapahi, A. P. Rao, C. R. Subrahmanya, V. K. Kulkarni (1991). "Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope" (PDF). Current Science. 60 (2): 95–105.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  27. ^ V. K. Kapahi, S. Ananthakrishnan (1995). "Astronomy with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope" (PDF). Bulletin of Astronomical Society of India. 23: 265–268.
  28. ^ "Executive council members of the Astronomical Society of India during 1973–2009". Astronomical Society of India. 2017. Archived from the original on 20 March 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  29. ^ "CSIR list of Awardees". Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. 2017.
  30. ^ "Fellow profile". Indian Academy of Sciences. 2017.
  31. ^ "INSA Year Book 2016" (PDF). Indian National Science Academy. 2017.
  32. ^ "NASI Year Book 2015" (PDF). National Academy of Sciences, India. 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 August 2015. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
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Further reading

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