Anil Bhardwaj

Anil Bhardwaj (born June 1, 1967) is the Director of the Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, ISRO, Trivandrum, India He is the recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in 2007, and was awarded NRC Senior Research Associteship by US National Academy of Science in 2003 He worked at Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, during January 2004 to October 2005 He was awarded fellowship grant by United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs, Vienna, Austria, in 1996 He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore; Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi; Indian Geophysical Union, Hyderabad; and Kerala Academy of Sciences, Trivandrum He was also awarded ISRO Team Excellence Award for Chandrayaan1 Science and Mission in 2008 He is a member of International Astronomical Union Currently, he is the member of INSAICSU Committee for COSPAR, SCOSTEP and URSI, and ViceChair of COSPAR Commission B
Dr Bhardwaj did his graduation in Maths, Statistics, and Physics with Honours, and obtained his Master of Science degree in Physics from Lucknow University He received his Doctorate Degree in Applied Physics (Planetary and Space Science) in 2002 from Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi As a Planetary and Space Scientist, Dr Bhardwajs research interests include theoretical and observational studies of planetary surfaces, atmospheres, ionospheres, and their coupling with magnetospheric plasma and solar wind His Current Research Interests are: Aurora and airglow processes in planetary atmospheres, chemistry of planetary ionospheres, auroral plasma processes on comets and its implications on coma chemistry, Monte Carlo simulations of processes in atmosphere, solar windlunar interaction, ENA imaging of the lunar surface and Earths magnetosphereionosphere system, groundbased and spacebased multiwavelength (Xray, UV, visible, radio) imaging and spectroscopy of emissions from planetary bodies, and comparative planetology The planetary bodies on which worked include, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Triton, Titan, Io plasma torus, Rings of Saturn, Venus, Mars, Earth, Moon, and Comets Dr Bhardwaj has been the Principal Investigator of the SARA (SubkeV Atom Reflecting Analyzer) experiment on the Chandrayaan1 mission