Eminent astrophysicist elected NASI Fellow

Updated on: Thursday, December 22, 2011

Eminent astrophysicist Prof D J Saikia of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research(TIFR), Pune has been elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India(NASI) for this year.

Prof Saikia, who works in TIFR's National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, has made wide-ranging and highly-cited contribution to observations of radio galaxies and quasars and their interpretation in terms of astrophysical processes, a TIFR press release said.

Saikia, who hails from Jorhat in Assam and had his school education from Shillong, has along with his students and collaborators made many significant discoveries using Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), the world's largest low-frequency radio telescope located near Pune.

These include the largest giant radio galaxy which extends over 15 million light years, the most distant giant quasar, besides one of the largest synchronotron radio haloes around a spiral galaxy, active galaxies with evidence of recurrent nuclear activity and several neutral hydrogen gas clouds at cosmological distances.

He is currently the Editor of the Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India, the release added.

Eminent astrophysicist elected NASI Fellow

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