Renowned radio astronomer, Govind Swarup (born in Thakurwada in Uttar Pradesh in 1929), died on September 7, 2020, in Pune following a brief illness at the age of 91. He is credited with conceptualising and leading the team, which set up the Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT) and Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT). He was the founder-director of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR)—National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) in Pune.
He returned India from Stanford University and was asked by Homi Bhabha, father of India’s nuclear physics, to open up avenues to study Radio Astronomy. In 1965, he joined the TIFR and helped set up the 500 metre-long, 30 metre-wide set of dishes in a cylindrical parabolic fashion, covering an area of 15,000 square metre in the lowest cost possible, yet the telescope was the largest.
Thereafter, he decided to set up GMRT at Pune, an array of 30 dish antennas spread across a distance of 25 km, arranged in a ‘Y’ shape at a pristine yet suitable location at Khodad in Junnar taluka. The telescope has facilitated some novel discoveries in the field of astronomy since 2002. He also guided the recent upgradation process of the GMRT.
He won several coveted awards, including the Padma Shri, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, and the Grote Reber Medal.
Courtesy: Indian Express