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Shrinivas Kulkarni

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Shrinivas R. Kulkarni
BornOctober 4, 1956
Kurundwad, Marashtra, India
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

Shrinivas R. Kulkarni (born 1956) is an astronomer born in India. He is currently a professor of astronomy and planetary science at California Institute of Technology [2] and the director of Caltech Optical Observatory (COO) at California Institute of Technology who oversees Palomar and Keck among other telescopes[2] The success of his astronomical research is seen 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 .

Background

Shrinivas R. Kulkarni was born in a small town of Kurundwad on October 4, 1956 in southern Maharashtra as the only son among 4 children of the surgeon Dr. R. H. Kulkarni and Mrs. Vimala Kulkarni, and had his early education in Hubballi, Karnataka India[3][4][5][6]. He obtained his MS in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 1978, and his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley 1983[2] and became a faculty member at California Institute of Technology in 1987[2].

He is a member of 4 national academies around the globe. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, London, in 2001[1][7], a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2003[8], an honorary fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences in 2012[9], and a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences on September 12, 2016[10] [11].

He has received many awards including the NSF's Alan T. Waterman Award in 1992[12], Helen B. Warner Prize from the American Astronomical Society in 1991[13], Jansky Prize in 2002[14] and Dan David Prize in 2017[15][16].

He has mentored 64 young scholars by the end of 2016 according to his website. He has been the Jury Chair for the Infosys Prize for the discipline of Physical Sciences since 2009 [17]. Kulkarni is the brother of Sunanda Kulkarni, Sudha Murthy, and Jayshree Deshpande[3][5][18].

Key Discoveries

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) soft gamma-ray repeaters, (4) gamma-ray bursts, and (5) optical transients. He made significant contributions in these sub-fields of astronomy.

He started off his career as a radio astronomer. He studied Milky Way Galaxy using HI absorption under the guidance of his advisor Carl Heiles, and observed its four arms[19]. The review articles he wrote with Carl Heiles have been highly cited in the field of interstellar medium[20][21].

He discovered the first millisecond pulsar called PSR B1937+21[22] working with Donald C. Backer while he was a graduate student. In 1986, he found the first optical counterpart of binary pulsars[23], while he was a Millikan Fellow at California Institute of Technology. He was instrumental in discovery of the first globular cluster pulsar in 1987[24] using a supercomputer.

With Dale Frail and Toshio Murakami and his colleagues at ISAS (predecessor of JAXA that was led by Yasuo Tanaka then) Kulkarni showed that soft gamma-ray repeaters are neutron stars associated with supernova remnants[25][26]. This discovery eventually led to the understanding that neutron stars with extremely high magnetic field called magnetars are the soft gamma-ray repeaters[27].

Caltech-NRAO team which he led showed in 1997 that gamma-ray bursts came from extra-galactic sources[28], and identified optical counterparts[29]. Their research initiated the detailed studies of the sources of 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 unrefutable brown dwarf in 1994 that orbited around a star called Gliese 229[30].

His recent work involved Palomar Transient Factory which has succeeded in identifying new groups of optical transients such as superluminous supernova[31], calcium-rich supernova[32], and luminous red nova[33][34].

References

  1. ^ a b "Shrinivas Kulkarni". The Royal Society. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d "Shrinivas R. (Shri) Kulkarni". Caltech Geology and Planetary Science. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Karnataka Online Teachers Data Base". Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences Karnataka. 2012.
  4. ^ "A star called Kulkarni". rediff.com. 19 August 2003.
  5. ^ a b Kamala Bhatt (15 July 2002). "What Went Wrong?".
  6. ^ Kembhavi, Ajit (2001). "An accomplished observer". Frontline.
  7. ^ "The Royal Society inducts Shrinivas Kulkarni". rediff.com. 2001.
  8. ^ "Member Directory". National Academy of Science, US. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  9. ^ "Honorary Fellows". Indian Academy of Science. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  10. ^ "KNAW kiest zestien nieuwe leden" (in Dutch). Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  11. ^ "Shrnivas Kulkarni". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  12. ^ "Alan T. Waterman Award Recipients, 1976 - present". American Astronomical Society. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  13. ^ "Shrinivas Kulkarni received the 1991 Helen B. Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society.", Physics Today, 44: f129, 1991, Bibcode:1991PhT....44f.129.
  14. ^ "Jansky Lectureship". science.nrao.edu. 24 August 2016.
  15. ^ "Caltech Astronomer Receives 2017 Dan David Prize". www.caltech.edu. 10 February 2017. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help),
  16. ^ "Laureates 2017". www.dandavidprize.org. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  17. ^ "Jury Chairs 2009". Infosys Science Foundation. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  18. ^ "Two daughters who made India proud". www.leadcampus.org. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  19. ^ Kulkarni, Shrinivas R. (1983). Studies of galactica HI in 21-centimeter absorption (Ph. D. Thesis: UC Berkeley). Berkeley, California. Bibcode:1984PhDT.........4K.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  20. ^ Kulkarni, Shrinivas R.; Heiles, Carl (1988). Verschuur, G. L.; Kellerman, K.I. (eds.). Neutral hydrogen and the diffuse interstellar medium. in Galactic and Extragalactic Radio Astronomy. New York: Springer-Verlag. pp. 95–153. Bibcode:1988gera.book...95K.
  21. ^ Kulkarni; Heiles, Carl (1987). The atomic component. in Interstellar Processes; Proceedings of the Symposium, Grand Teton National Park, WY, July 1-7,1986. Dordrecht. Bibcode:1987ASSL..134...87K. {{cite book}}: Text "D. Reidel Publishing Co." ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  22. ^ Backer, D. C.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Heiles, C.; Davis, M. M.; Goss, W. M. (1982), "A millisecond pulsar", Nature, 300: 615, Bibcode:1982Natur.300..615B
  23. ^ Kulkarni, S. R. (1986), "Optical Identification of Binary Pulsars - Implication for Magnetic Field Decay in Neutron Stars", Astrophysical Journal, 306: L85, Bibcode:1986ApJ...306L..85K
  24. ^ Lyne, A. G.; Brinklow, A.; Middleditch, J.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Backer, D. C.; Clifton, T. R. (1987), "The Discovery of a Millisecond Pulsar in the Globular Cluster M28)", Nature, 328: 399, Bibcode:1987Natur.328..399L
  25. ^ Kulkarni, S. R.; Frail, D. A. (1993), "Identification of a supernova remnant coincident with the soft gamma-ray repeater SGR 1806-20", Nature, 365: 33, Bibcode:1993Natur.365...33K
  26. ^ Murakami, T.; Tanaka, Y.; Kulkarni, S. R.; et al. (1994), "X-ray dentification of a supernova the soft gamma-ray repeater 1806-20", Nature, 368: 127, Bibcode:1994Natur.368..127K {{citation}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |first3= (help)
  27. ^ Kulkarni, S. R.; Thompson, Christopher (1998), "Neutron Stars: A star powered by magnetism", Nature, 393: 215, Bibcode:1998Natur.393..215K
  28. ^ Metzgar, M. R.; Djorgovski, S. G.; Kulkarni, S. R.; et al. (1997), "Spectral constraints on the redshift of the optical counterpart to the gamma-ray burst of 8 May 1997", Nature, 387: 878, Bibcode:1997Natur.387..878M {{citation}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |first3= (help)
  29. ^ Djorgovski, S. G.; Metzgar, M. R.; Kulkarni, S. R.; et al. (1997), "The optical counterpart to the gamma-ray burst GRB970508", Nature, 387: 867, Bibcode:1997Natur.387..876D {{citation}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |first3= (help)
  30. ^ Nakajima, T.; Oppenheimer, B. R.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Golimowski, D. A.; Matthews, K.; Durrance, S. (1995), "Discovery of a Cool Brown Dwarf", Nature, 378: 463, Bibcode:1995Natur.378..463N
  31. ^ Quimby, R. M.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Kasliwal, M. M.; et al. (2011), "Hydrogen-poor super luminous stellar explosions", Nature, 474: 487, Bibcode:2011Natur.474..487Q {{citation}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |first3= (help)
  32. ^ Kasliwal, M. M.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Arcavi, I.; et al. (2012), "Calcium-Rich Transients in the Remote Outskerts of Galaxies", Astrophysical Journal, 755: 161, Bibcode:2012ApJ...755..161K {{citation}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |first3= (help)
  33. ^ Rau, A.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Ofek, E. O.; Yan, L. (2007), "Spitzer Observations of the New Luminous Red Nova M85 OT2006-1", Astrophysical Joural, 659: 1536, Bibcode:2007ApJ...659.1539R
  34. ^ Kasliwal, M. M.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Arcavi, I.; et al. (2011), "PTF 10fqs: A Luminous Red Nova in the Spiral Galaxy Messier 99", Nature, 730: 134, Bibcode:2012ApJ...755..161K {{citation}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |first3= (help)
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