Who was Govind Swarup?

Swarup was born in Thakurwada in Uttar Pradesh in 1929. (Source: video screenshot / Google Arts & Culture)

Govind Swarup, the pioneer of radio astronomy in India, died on Monday in Pune after a brief illness. He was 91 years old. Swarup is credited with conceptualizing and leading the team that created the Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT) and the Giant VHF Radio Telescope (GMRT).

Regarded as the “Father of Radio Astronomy of India”, Swarup was the founder and director of TIFR – National Center for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) in Pune.

On Tuesday, the chief scientific adviser to the government of India, K VijayRaghavan, said on Twitter: “… the world of astronomy has lost a great scientist, institution, and telescope builder. Always smiling, no one who would take no for anything they wanted done, took on many impossible tasks and inspired their colleagues to do them. “

Among the rewards Swarup received during his lifetime were the Herschel Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society, the Padma Shri, the URSI Dellinger Medal, and the Grote Reber Medal from Australia.

Who was Govind Swarup?

Swarup was born in Thakurwada in Uttar Pradesh in 1929. He completed his master’s degree at the University of Allahabad in 1950 and pursued his doctoral studies at Stanford University in 1961.

A tribute offered to Swarup on his 90th birthday in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage mentions that he accepted an assistant professorship in electrical engineering at Stanford University in 1961, shortly after completing his doctorate. The tribute goes on to refer to Swarup as someone with “remarkable inventions” who “helped reshape astronomical instrumentation.”

After completing his Ph.D., Swarup contemplated returning to India and discussed these ideas with two colleagues, MR Kundu and TK Menon, who were also working in the United States at the time. The idea was to return to India with the aim of developing the field of radio astronomy.

Subsequently, one of his mentors, Chris Christiansen, wrote to Swarup in 1960 saying, “… you two [i.e. Swarup and Krishnan] and Menon and Kundu should unite for a united attack on the monolith of the Indian bureaucracy; separately, I can’t see them getting anywhere in radio astronomy very fast … I know all of them, and I feel like [the four of you] It would make a very good team ”and suggested that they include T Krishnan in the team.

Swarup returned to India in 1965 and soon joined the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research.

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Setting up the ORT was not an easy task, but Swarup was aware of the geographic advantage India enjoyed due to its proximity to the equator. His clear vision helped to configure the 500-meter-long and 30-meter-wide array of dishes in a parabolic cylindrical shape, covering an area of ​​15,000 square meters at the lowest possible cost, yet the telescope was the largest at the time.

The ORT, which was completed in 1970, allows tracking of celestial objects for 10 hours straight and is one of the most sensitive telescopes in the world.

With ORT’s experience, Swarup decided to set up the Pune GMRT, an array of 30 satellite dishes spread over a distance of 25 km, arranged in a ‘Y’ shape in a pristine but suitable location in Khodad in Junnar taluka. Since 2002, GMRT has facilitated some novel discoveries in the field of astronomy. Swarup had also guided the update process that GMRT underwent in recent years.

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