D. D. Bhawalkar
Dilip Devidas Bhawalkar is an Indian optical physicist and the founder director of the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, an institute under the Department of Atomic Energy, serving as a centre for higher studies in the fields of lasers and particle accelerators. He is credited with pioneering research in optics and lasers in India and is reported to have contributed in making CAT a partner in the International Linear Collider and Large Hadron Collider experiments of the European Organization for Nuclear Research. He is a recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, the highest Indian award in science and technology. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri in 2000.
Biography
Bhawalkar, born on 16 October 1940 at Sagar city of Dr. Hari Singh Gour University, in the Central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, completed his graduate in 1959 and postgraduate studies in 1961 at Sagar University, topping the examinations for which he received Chintamanrao Gold Medal from the university. He continued his studies at Southampton University, securing a master's degree in electronics and a doctoral degree in lasers and started his career as a member of faculty at the same university in 1966. His career at Southampton was short-lived as he returned to India in 1967 and accepted the job of a scientific officer at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre to continue his work on lasers. He stayed at BARC mainstream till 1987 during which period, he became the section head in 1973 and the division head in 1984.Bhawalkar was appointed as the founder director when Centre for Advanced Technology was started by the Department of Atomic Energy in 1987. In 2000, when he was due for his statutory superannuation, the government extended his service for a further period of two years, till October 2002. After his retirement in 2002, he joined Quantalase, an organization manufacturing industrial and medical lasers, as its director and holds the post till date.
Legacy
Bhawalkar is one of the pioneers of laser in India and one of the early doctoral scholars in the technology when the discipline was at its nascent stage. He initiated research on lasers at BARC, has been one of the key figures in the establishment of the Centre for Advanced Technology of the DAE at BARC and was involved with the institution from its beginning till his superannuation. During this period, he was instrumental in setting up of various laboratories and facilities of CAT and developing a National Laser Programme for the country. His efforts are reported behind the establishment of research infrastructure and courses on lasers and particle accelerators at BARC training school and behind the introduction of R&D programmes at the Laser Division of BARC. He also mentored 18 research scholars, including two from Southampton University, in their studies.Bhawalkar is credited with pioneering research on Lasers in India and was the initiator of a new method for measuring weak lensing in gases by employing a Gaussian beam which has since been incorporated in Photothermal spectroscopy. His development of an Nd Glass laser chain for generating 10GW of pulsed power has assisted the subsequent experiments on laser-produced plasmas. He has also contributed to the development of biological and medical applications of lasers. He founded a prototype production facility at CAT which is reported to have supplied over 50 lasers for DAE researches and to the industry. The team led by him is known to have contributed for the setting up of INDUS 1, the first Synchrotron Radiation Source in India and the precursor of Indus 2. It was during his tenure as the director, CAT started its participation in the International Linear Collider and Large Hadron Collider experiments of European Organization for Nuclear Research. His researches have been documented by over 80 scientific and organizational articles, published in national and international peer reviewed journals.