Noted astrophysicist Dr. Tarun Souradeep assumed charge as director of one of the leading institutes in the country, Raman Research Institute (RRI) in Bengaluru. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the spokesperson (science) for LIGO-India and member secretary of LIGO – India Scientific Management Board. He was one of the lead proposers of the national mega-science LIGO-IndIa project in 2011.
On taking over as director of RRI, Prof. Souradeep said, “It is an honour to be at helm of RRI – an institution with a very rich heritage and unique scientific legacy. It has nurtured a healthy balance of top-end research, together with technological capability that holds great promise for future frontier endeavour at par with the best in the world.”
Prior to this, he was professor and Chair of the Physics Department at the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune. He did his Ph.D. at Pune’s Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) and was a postdoctoral fellow at Kansas State University and the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics.