Shrinivas Kulkarni

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Shrinivas R. Kulkarni
Kulkarni in 2016
Born (1956-10-04) 4 October 1956 (age 67)
Alma mater
Awards
  • FRS[1] (2001)
  • US NAS (2003)
  • Indian Academy of Sciences (2012)
  • Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2016)
  • Helen B. Warner Prize (1991)
  • NSF Waterman Prize (1992)
  • Jansky prize (2002)
  • Dan David Prize (2017)
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy
  • Interstellar Medium
  • Pulsars
  • Millisecond Pulsars,
  • Brown Dwarf
  • Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters
  • Gamma-ray Bursts
  • Optical Transients
InstitutionsCalifornia Institute of Technology
Doctoral advisor
Notable studentsAlicia M. Soderberg

Shrinivas Ramchandra Kulkarni (born 4 October 1956) is a US-based astronomer born and raised in India.

Keck among other telescopes.[3]
He is the recipient of a number of awards and honours.

Early life and education

Shrinivas Ramchandra Kulkarni was born on 4 October 1956 in the small town of

Sudha Murthy (educator, author, philanthropist and wife of one of the co-founders of Infosys) and Jaishree Deshpande (wife of Gururaj Deshpande).[4][5][6]

Kulkarni and his sisters grew up in

Career

In 1987, Kulkarni obtained a position as faculty at the California Institute of Technology.[3] According to his website, he has mentored 64 young scholars by the end of 2016.

Kulkarni is known for making key discoveries that open new sub-fields within astronomy, using wide range of wavelength in observation. ADS shows that his papers cover following fields: (1) HI absorption studies of Milky Way Galaxy, (2) pulsars, millisecond pulsars, and globular cluster pulsars, (3) brown dwarfs and other sub-stellar objects, (4) soft gamma-ray repeaters, (5) gamma-ray bursts, and (6) optical transients. He made significant contributions in these sub-fields of astronomy.

Key discoveries

Kulkarni started off his career as a radio astronomer. He studied

Carl Heiles have been highly cited in the field of interstellar medium.[9][10]

He discovered the first

Donald Backer and colleagues, while he was a graduate student. In 1986, he found the first optical counterpart of binary pulsars,[12] while he was a Millikan Fellow at California Institute of Technology. He was instrumental in discovery of the first globular cluster pulsar in 1987[13]
using a supercomputer.

With

gamma-ray bursts along with the European team led by Jan van Paradijs
.

He was also a member of the Caltech team that observed the first irrefutable brown dwarf in 1994 that orbited around a star called Gliese 229.[19]

His recent work involved Palomar Transient Factory which has succeeded in identifying the new groups of optical transients such as superluminous supernovae,[20] calcium-rich supernovae,[21] and luminous red novae.[22][23]

The success of his astronomical research is evident by 63 Nature Letters, 7 Science Letters, and total of 479 refereed scientific articles that bear his name by the end of 2015, according to ADS. Recognizing his contribution to astronomy, he was awarded the Dan David Prize in 2017.[24]

Awards and honours

Kulkarni has received many awards and honours, including the NSF's

Helen B. Warner Prize from the American Astronomical Society
in 1991,

Services to the field

Kulkarni has been the Jury Chair for the

The prize is awarded by the Infosys Foundation, whose founder is Kulkarni's brother-in-law, Narayana Murthy.

Kulkarni is a member of as many as four national academies around the globe. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, London, in 2001,[1][32] a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2003,[33] an honorary fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences in 2012,[34] and a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences on 12 September 2016.[35][36]

References

  1. ^ a b "Shrinivas Kulkarni". The Royal Society. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  2. ^ a b Kembhavi, Ajit (2001). "An accomplished observer". Frontline.
  3. ^ a b c d "Shrinivas R. (Shri) Kulkarni". Caltech Geology and Planetary Science. Archived from the original on 17 May 2017. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  4. ^ a b "Karnataka Online Teachers Data Base". Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences Karnataka. 2012.
  5. ^ a b Kamala Bhatt (15 July 2002). "What Went Wrong?".
  6. ^ "Two daughters who made India proud". www.leadcampus.org. 9 March 2017. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  7. ^ "A star called Kulkarni". rediff.com. 19 August 2003.
  8. Bibcode:1984PhDT.........4K.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  9. .
  10. .
  11. ^ "Indian scientist Shrinivas Kulkarni wins Dan David Prize". The Hindu. 18 May 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  12. ^ "Alan T. Waterman Award Recipients, 1976 - present". American Astronomical Society. Archived from the original on 2 March 2015. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  13. ^ "Jansky Lectureship". science.nrao.edu. 24 August 2016.
  14. ^ "Caltech Astronomer Receives 2017 Dan David Prize". www.caltech.edu. 10 February 2017.
  15. ^ "Laureates 2017". www.dandavidprize.org. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  16. ^ "Honorary Doctorate for astronomer Shrinivas Kulkarni". Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  17. ^ "Jury Chairs 2009". Infosys Science Foundation. Archived from the original on 28 March 2017. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  18. ^ "The Royal Society inducts Shrinivas Kulkarni". rediff.com. 2001.[permanent dead link]
  19. ^ "Member Directory". National Academy of Science, US. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  20. ^ "Honorary Fellows". Indian Academy of Science. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  21. ^ "KNAW kiest zestien nieuwe leden" (in Dutch). Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  22. ^ "Shrnivas Kulkarni". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 25 March 2017.

External links