D.D Bhawalkar

Dilip Devidas Bhawalkar is an Indian optical physicist and the founder director of the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (CAT), 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 (CERN). 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 (BSc) in 1959 and postgraduate (MSc) 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 (MSc) in electronics and a doctoral degree (PhD) in lasers and started his career as a member of faculty at the same university in 1966.

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.

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. 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. 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. He is a member of the Indian Physics Association, The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) He was elected as a Fellow of the Optical Society of America in 1998 and was, subsequently, selected as the Foreign Fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. and he was included in the 2000 Republic Day honours list for the civilian award of the Padma Shri, by the Government of India.