Govind Swarup

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Govind Swarup
FRS[1]
Born(1929-03-23)23 March 1929
Thakurdwara, United Provinces, British India
Died7 September 2020(2020-09-07) (aged 91)
Pune
NationalityIndian
Known forRadioastronomy; R&D
Awards
  • 1972 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize
  • 1973 Padma Shri
  • 1984 INSA P.C. Mahalanobis Medal
  • 1986 IPS Biren Roy Trust Medal
  • 1987 INSA Vainu Bappu Memorial Award
  • 1987 Tskolovosky Medal
  • 1987 NASI Meghnad Saha Medal
  • 1988 TWAS Prize
  • 1990 IURS John Howard Delinger Gold Medal
  • 1990 R. D. Birla Award
  • 1991 FIE Foundation Award
  • 1993 Gujar Mal Modi Science Award
  • 1993 INSA C. V. Raman Medal
  • 1994 UoC Sir Devaprasad Sarbadhikari Medal
  • 1995 M. P. Birla Award
  • 1999 Khwarizmi International Award
  • 2001 H. K. Firodia Award
  • 2005 RAS Herschel Medal
  • 2006 UoP Lifetime Achievement Award
  • 2007 Grote Reber Medal
  • 2007 ISC President's Medal
  • 2009 Homi Bhabha Award
Scientific career
FieldsRadioastronomy
InstitutionsTIFR
Doctoral advisorRonald N. Bracewell
Doctoral studentsVijay Kumar Kapahi, Gopal Krishna

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 and powerful observational facilities for front-line research in radio astronomy".[2]

Swarup was the key scientist behind concept, design and installation of the Ooty Radio Telescope (Ootacamund, India) and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) near Pune.[3][4] Swarup was the founding director of the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).[5] Under his leadership, a strong group in radio astrophysics was built at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research that is comparable to the best in the world.[6]

He published over 125 research papers, edited 4 books, and held at least two patents.[7] He contributed to the fields of solar radio emission, radio galaxies, quasars, pulsars, interplanetary scintillation, dark matter and cosmology.[4][8][9]

Early life and education[edit]

Govind Swarup was born in the town of Thakurdwara in Uttar Pradesh in 1929. He attended Allahabad University, where he received his BSc degree (1948) and MSc in Physics (1950).[7][10][11]

Swarup spent several years at the National Physical Laboratory in Delhi with K. S. Krishnan (1950–53),[7] measuring the spin resonance of electrons.[6][4][7] Because there was interest in the newly developing field of radio astronomy, arrangements were made to send Swarup and another student to the Radio Physics Division of CSIRO, in Sydney, Australia, to work with Joseph Pawsey and learn to build radio arrays for studying the sun. In March 1953 Swarup arrived at Potts Hill in New South Wales on a 2-year fellowship. He worked closely with Pawsey, Wilbur Norman Christiansen, John Gatenby Bolton, Bernard Mills and others. Swarup was also able to arrange for parts from a discarded 32-element array to be sent from Australia to the National Laboratory in India. He returned to the National Laborary from 1955–56.[4][12]

When the array parts were seriously delayed, Swarup went to the United States.[11] He worked as a research associate at the Radio Astronomy Station of Harvard University at Fort Davis, Texas (1956–57). He then became a research assistant at Stanford University (1957–60) in California, completing his doctoral thesis with Ron Bracewell.[6][4][7] Swarup received his PhD from Stanford University in 1961[7][10] and became an assistant professor at Stanford University (1961–63).[7][10]

Swarup was later awarded a number of honorary degrees: Doctor of Engineering, University of Roorkee in 1987 and Doctor of Science, Banaras Hindu University in 1996.[7] He was also given an honorary Doctor of Science by Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur in 2010.

Career[edit]

Returning from Stanford to India in March 1963, Swarup joined TIFR as a reader at the request of Dr. Homi Bhabha. In 1965, he became associate professor, professor in 1970, and professor of eminence in 1989. He became project director of the GMRT in 1987, centre director of the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) of TIFR in 1993 and retired from TIFR in 1994.[6][10]

Major contributions[edit]

CSIRO and Harvard[edit]

While at CSIRO, Swarup and R. Parthasarathy converted Potts Hill's L-shaped grating radio interferometer telescope to an operating wavelength of 500 MHz. They used it to make daily observations and developed a one-dimensional map of the Quiet Sun.[11][12][10] While at the Harvard College Observatory Swarup discovered 'Type U' solar radio bursts.[4][13][14][15]

Stanford[edit]

At Stanford Swarup continued to make studies of radio emissions from the Quiet Sun and developed a gyro-radiation model of solar emissions of microwave radiation. He explained the emission mechanism of sunspots in terms of gyroresonance processes.[16][17][18][19]

In 1959, Swarup developed a technique for the round-trip transmission of phase measurements that enabled the phase equalization of all 32 antennas in an array to be carried out in minutes rather than weeks.[20][10] Published in 1961, this technique has been used in radio interferometers world-wide.[13][21]

In 1962 Swarup used the Stanford compound-grating interferometer to examine Cygnus A. Previous researchers had shown that the radio galaxy contained two distinct radio lobes. In 1963 Swarup reported the presence of a continuous "bridge" of radio emissions between the two lobes, the first instance of a steep spectrum bridge. Such bridges are used to estimate the age of a radio galaxy.[13][22][23][24][25]

Kalyan Radio Telescope[edit]

Returning to India on April 2, 1963, Swarup began to assemble a group at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research near Mumbai. With the antennae from Potts Hill, they constructed the Kalyan Radio Telescope, the first radio telescope array in India. Located at Kalyan, near Mumbai, India, it was completed in 1965.[4][8][9]

Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT)[edit]

Swarup's next major installation was the Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT) at Ooty in South India. It became operational in 1970, first observing a lunar occultation event on February 18, 1970.[26] The design was "unique and innovative",[13] "the first large equatorial cylindrical parabolic radio telescope with steerability in both directions".[8] 530 m long 30 m wide, it was located at an incline on a hill so that it would have a long axis of rotation parallel to the axis of the earth. The design made it possible to track the hour angle of celestial radio sources for 9.5 hrs.[13][4][8][27][6][9]

ORT has been used for a number of important observations. Using lunar occultation, it provided independent evidence for the Big Bang model.[26][6] Occultation observations of Sagittarius A* at the Galactic Center of the Milky Way galaxy supported the separation of its emissions into two dimensions, thermal and non-thermal.[28] After fifty years, ORT continues to be used to observe solar winds, coronal mass ejections, and pulsars.[26]

In 1979, Swarup went on sabbatical at the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico, where studied jets and hot spots.[29] During the 1980s, he studied the polarization of radio cores of galaxies and quasars.[13][30][4][8]

Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT)[edit]

Beginning in 1985, Swarup began construction of the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), at Khodad near Pune. The telescope was completed in 1997. Inspired by the Very Large Array, and the Arecibo Telescope, GMRT contains 30 steerable parabolic dishes, each of them 45m in diameter, arranged in a Y-shape array over a 25 km area.[3][31][8] Using a novel SMART (Stretched Mesh Attached to Rope Trusses) design concept,[32] GMRT is highly versatile. It is the world's largest radio telescope for the detection of frequencies in the range of 130–1430 MHz[13] and has been used by researchers from over 40 countries.[8] GMRT was recognized as a key historical achievement in electrical and electronic engineering and given IEEE Milestone status in 2020.[33][34]

One of the concerns behind the development of the GMRT was the question of dark matter and the nature of the universe. A sensitive radio telescope at an appropriate frequency (327 MHz) was needed to test predictions about whether the universe contained hot dark matter (HDM) or cold dark matter (CDM). [35] Swarup has used the GMRT to observe the emission and absorption of atomic hydrogen from objects in the early Universe, examine the cosmic cold spot, and study radio emissions from Venus.[4][8][9]

Awards and memberships of technological committees[edit]

Membership of professional societies: Royal Society, London;[36][4] Royal Astronomical Society, London;[4] Indian Academy of Sciences;[4] Indian National Science Academy;[4] National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, India;[4] Third World Academy of Sciences;[4] Indian Geophysical Union; Maharashtra Academy of Sciences; Institution of Electronics & Telecommunication Engineers; Indian Physics Association; Indian Physical Society; International Academy of Astronautics; Pontifical Academy of Sciences;

Positions held: Astronomical Society of India (President 1975–77); International Astronomical Union (IAU) (President, Commission 40 on Radio Astronomy, 1979–82);[37] Executive Committee, Inter Union Commission for Frequency Allocation (IUCAF till 1995); IAU Working Group for Future Large Scale Facilities (1994–2000); Chairman, Indian National Committee for International Union of Radio Science (URSI) (1986–88 & 1995–97); Post-detection Sub-Committee of SETI of International Astronautical Federation (Chairman, 1994–98); Chairman, URSI Committee for Developing Countries (1996–2002); URSI Standing Committee for Future General Assemblies (1999–2002). Editorial Boards, Indian Journal of Radio & Space Physics (1990–2000), National Academy of Sciences, India; (1997–2000).[13]

Awards: 1973 Padma Shri; 1972 S.S. Bhatnagar, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, India; 1974 Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship for 2 years; 1984 P.C. Mahalanobis Medal, Indian National Science Academy;[2] 1986 Biren Roy Trust Medal, Indian Physical Society, Calcutta; 1987 Dr. Vainu Bappu Memorial Award, Indian National Science Academy; 1987 Tskolovosky Medal, Federation of Cosmonautics, USSR; 1987 Meghnad Saha Medal, National Academy of Sciences, India; 1988 TWAS Prize in Physics; 1990 John Howard Dellinger Gold Medal, International Union of Radio Sciences; 1990 R.D. Birla Award in Physics, Indian Physics Association; 1991 FIE Foundation Award for Eminence in Science & Technology, Ichhalkaranji, India; 1993 Gujar Mal Modi Science Award, Modi Foundation, India; 1993 The C.V. Raman Medal, Indian National Science Academy;[2] 1994 Sir Devaprasad Sarbadhikari Medal, Calcutta University; 1995 M.P. Birla Award, Birla Institute of Astronomy and Planetarium Sciences, Calcutta; 1999 12th Khwarizmi International Award, Iran; 2001 H.K. Firodia Award; 2005 Herschel Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society;[13] 2006, Lifetime Achievement Award by the University of Pune; 2007 Grote Reber Medal;[3] 2007 Presidents Medal by the Indian Science Congress; 2009 Homi Bhabha Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Prime minister of India.[38]

Personal life[edit]

Prof. Govind Swarup was married to Bina Swarup and resided in Pune, India. He had one daughter and one son. His daughter Anju Basu is married to Rajiv Basu and his son, Vipin Swarup is married to Natasha Swarup.[4]

Swarup had an elder brother in Kanpur, Mahesh Swarup Agarwal, who was an industrialist.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Govind Swarup". The Royal Society. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
  2. ^ a b c "Indian Fellow". Indian National Science Academy. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Jauncey, Dave (2007). "2007 Grote Reber Medal to Professor Govind Swarup". CSIRO Newsletter. Australia Telescope National Facility. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Gupta, Amitava Sen; Ananthakrishnan, Subra; Gupta, Yashwant (June 2020). "In Memoriam: Govind Swarup" (PDF). The Radio Science Bulletin. 2020 (373): 64–68. Bibcode:2020URSB..373...64G. doi:10.23919/URSIRSB.2020.9318439. S2CID 234690003. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
  5. ^ Nityananda, Rajaram (10 September 2020). "Remembering Govind Swarup – Astronomer, Builder, Leader". Science The WIRE. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Raychaudhury, Somak (9 September 2020). "Govind Swarup: Pioneer radio astronomer, beacon of frugal science". Nature India. doi:10.1038/nindia.2020.134 (inactive 31 January 2024). Retrieved 9 September 2021.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2024 (link)
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h "Govind Swarup". Indian institute of Astrophysics. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Ananthakrishnan, S.; Balasubramanian, V. (July 2021). "Beginnings and Growth of Radio Astronomy in TIFR". Resonance. 26 (7): 895–917. doi:10.1007/s12045-021-1191 (inactive 31 January 2024). Retrieved 10 September 2021.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2024 (link)
  9. ^ a b c d Orchiston, Wayne; Phakatkar, S. (2019). "A Tribute to Professor Govind Swarup, FRS: the Father of Indian Radio Astronomy". Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage. 22 (1): 3–44. Bibcode:2019JAHH...22...03O. doi:10.3724/SP.J.1440-2807.2019.01.01. S2CID 219297274. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Swarup, Govind (8 September 2021). "The Journey of a Radio Astronomer: Growth of Radio Astronomy in India". Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics. 59 (1): 1–19. Bibcode:2021ARA&A..59....1S. doi:10.1146/annurev-astro-090120-014030. S2CID 234854820.
  11. ^ a b c Ramachandran, R. (9 October 2020). "Govind Swarup (1929-2020): Star among astronomers". Frontline. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  12. ^ a b Nakamura, Tsuko; Orchiston, Wayne (3 November 2017). The emergence of astrophysics in Asia : opening a new window on the universe. Cham: Springer. ISBN 978-3319620800. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Govind Swarup". The Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
  14. ^ Reid, Hamish A. S. (24 September 2020). "A Review of Recent Solar Type III Imaging Spectroscopy". Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences. 7: 56. doi:10.3389/fspas.2020.00056.
  15. ^ Reid, Hamish A. S.; Kontar, Eduard P. (October 2017). "Imaging spectroscopy of type U and J solar radio bursts with LOFAR". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 606: A141. arXiv:1706.07410. Bibcode:2017A&A...606A.141R. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201730701. S2CID 54537557. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
  16. ^ Alissandrakis, Costas E. (22 October 2020). "Structure of the Solar Atmosphere: A Radio Perspective". Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences. 7: 574460. Bibcode:2020FrASS...7...74A. doi:10.3389/fspas.2020.574460.
  17. ^ Alissandrakis, Costas E.; Gary, Dale E. (6 January 2021). "Radio Measurements of the Magnetic Field in the Solar Chromosphere and the Corona". Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences. 7: 591075. Bibcode:2021FrASS...7...77A. doi:10.3389/fspas.2020.591075.
  18. ^ Vourlidas, Angelos; Gary, Dale E.; Shibasaki, Kiyoto (25 February 2006). "Sunspot Gyroresonance Emission at 17 GHz: A Statistical Study". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. 58 (1): 11–20. doi:10.1093/pasj/58.1.11. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  19. ^ Kakinuma, T.; Swarup, G. (November 1962). "A Model for the Sources of the Slowly Varying Component of Microwave Solar Radiation". The Astrophysical Journal. 136: 975. Bibcode:1962ApJ...136..975K. doi:10.1086/147450.
  20. ^ Thompson, A. Richard; Moran, James M.; Swenson, George W. (2017). "Chapter 7: System Design". Interferometry and Synthesis in Radio Astronomy. Springer. pp. 255–307. ISBN 978-3-319-444314. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  21. ^ Swarup, G.; Yang, K. (January 1961). "Phase adjustment of large antennas". IRE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation. 9 (1): 75–81. Bibcode:1961ITAP....9...75S. doi:10.1109/TAP.1961.1144953. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  22. ^ Gopal-Krishna (10 May 2021). "Historical Notes Prof. Govind Swarup's connection to the archetypal radio galaxy Cygnus A" (PDF). Current Science. 120 (9): 1530–1531. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  23. ^ Thompson, A. Richard; Moran, James M.; Swenson, Jr., George W. (2017). Interferometry and synthesis in radio astronomy (Third ed.). Cham, Switzerland. pp. 28–30. ISBN 9783319444291. Retrieved 10 September 2021.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  24. ^ Swarup, A. G.; Thompson, A. R.; Bracewell, R. N. (July 1963). "The Structure of Cygnus". The Astrophysical Journal. 138: 305. Bibcode:1963ApJ...138..305S. doi:10.1086/147644. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  25. ^ Picken, J. S.; Swarup, G. (June 1964). "The Stanford compound-grating interferometer". The Astronomical Journal. 69: 353. Bibcode:1964AJ.....69..353P. doi:10.1086/109283. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  26. ^ a b c "50th anniversary of Ooty Radio Telescope celebrated". The Hindu. 19 February 2020. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  27. ^ Swarup, G.; Sarma, N. V. G.; Joshi, M. N.; Kapahi, V. K.; Bagri, D. S.; Damle, S. H.; Ananthakrishnan, S.; Balasubramanian, V.; Bhave, S. S.; Sinha, R. P. (April 1971). "Large Steerable Radio Telescope at Ootacamund, India". Nature Physical Science. 230 (17): 185–188. Bibcode:1971NPhS..230..185S. doi:10.1038/physci230185a0. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  28. ^ Padmanabhan, Thanu (2014). Astronomy in India : a historical perspective. New Delhi: Springer. pp. 86–88. ISBN 9788184899979. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  29. ^ Saikia, Dhruba J. (July 2021). "Govind Swarup: Tribute to a Legend". Resonance. 26 (7): 869–893. doi:10.1007/s12045-021-1190-4. S2CID 238773607. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  30. ^ Saikia, D. J.; Swarup, G.; Kodali, P. D. (1 September 1985). "Polarization properties of radio cores in galaxies and quasars". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 216 (2): 385–394. doi:10.1093/mnras/216.2.385. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  31. ^ Kellermann, Kenneth I.; Bouton, E.N.; Brandt, S.S. (2020). "The Bar is Open". Open skies : The National Radio Astronomy Observatory and its impact on US radio astronomy. Historical & Cultural Astronomy. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. pp. 263–317. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-32345-5_6. ISBN 978-3-030-32345-5. S2CID 226629186. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  32. ^ "One of the world's largest radio telescope being set up near Pune will look for incontrovertible evidence for the Big Bang theory on the origin of the universe". DownToEarth. 15 January 1994. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  33. ^ Banerjee, Shoumojit (27 November 2020). "GMRT accorded prestigious IEEE Milestone status". The Hindu. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  34. ^ "GMRT accorded the prestigious IEEE Milestone status". Government of India. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  35. ^ Kanekar, Nissim; Chowdhury, Aditya; Chengalur, Jayaram N. (July 2021). "Atomic Hydrogen in Distant Galaxies". Resonance. 26 (7): 919–938. doi:10.1007/s12045-021-1192-2. S2CID 238813513. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  36. ^ Kembhavi, Ajit K.; Chengalur, Jayaram N. (2023). "Govind Swarup. 23 March 1929—7 September 2020". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 75: 455–478. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2022.0049. S2CID 258189944.
  37. ^ "Govind Swarup". International Astronomical Union. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
  38. ^ Rishiraj-Dutta (8 September 2020). "Radio Astronomer Prof. Govind Swarup Passed Away". National TV. Retrieved 9 September 2021.

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