Indian-origin astronomer wins UK's Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal
London (PTI): US-based astronomer Professor Shrinivas Kulkarni has been awarded the prestigious Gold Medal by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) in London for his "field-defining" discoveries in time-domain astronomy.
Maharashtra-born Kulkarni is the George Ellery Hale Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Science at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he has discovered a wide range of astronomical objects, including brown dwarfs and remote bursts of gamma rays.
His RAS Gold Medal citation from last week recognises his "sustained, innovative and ground-breaking contributions to multi-wavelength transient astrophysics".
In receiving the highest honour from the historic organisation, awarded annually since 1824, he joins great scientific minds such as Stephen Hawking, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Albert Einstein and Edwin Hubble.
"I was very surprised to hear the news, especially given the stellar list of past winners," said Kulkarni.
"I would like to thank my long-term collaborators and the engineering crew and members of the Palomar Transient Factory and the Zwicky Transient Facility for their immense contribution to the projects," he said.
The scientist described this discovery of the first millisecond pulsar as "the most fun achievement in my life", adding: "I was a graduate student when I made the discovery. I could not sleep for several days!"
Kulkarni, who also won the 2024 Shaw Prize in Astronomy recently, joined Caltech in 1985 and has since made many landmark findings including demonstrating in 1997 that powerful gamma-ray bursts originate outside our galaxy.
He went on to lead the development of the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) and its successor, the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), which have caught thousands of real-time cosmic events as they blink, explode, and otherwise light up the skies. ZTF, based at Caltech's Palomar Observatory near San Diego, is still going strong and surveying the entire Northern sky every two nights.
His RAS award citation notes that these "have revolutionised time domain astrophysics at optical wavelengths".
In his 2024 Watson Lecture at Caltech titled 'Illuminating the Dynamic Night Sky: Discoveries from the Zwicky Transient Facility’, Kulkarni discussed his passion for building instruments to explore uncharted areas in astronomy. He has built a total of 10 instruments in his career.
"My motto has been to build a big enough gizmo and things will happen," he said at the time.
Currently, Kulkarni is involved with developing NASA’s Ultraviolet Explorer (UVEX) mission, led by Fiona Harrison, the Harold A. Rosen Professor of Physics at Caltech. The mission, targeted to launch in 2030, will perform the most sensitive sky survey in ultraviolet light to date.
He is the principal investigator of Z-Shooter, a very powerful and versatile spectrometer for the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawai'i that is under development with a first light expected in 2029.
Kulkarni received his Master's from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in 1978, his PhD from UC Berkeley in 1983 and has been based at Caltech for over 40 years.
Each year the RAS recognises significant achievement in the fields of astronomy and geophysics through a number of awards, medals and prizes, encompassing different types of talent from research to education and outreach.
This year's Gold Medal in Geophysics has been won by Professor Andrew Jackson of ETH Zurich for his instrumental work in the field of geomagnetism.
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Gurugram CA held for slitting pregnant wife's throat with scissors
Jhajjar (PTI): A chartered accountant has been arrested for allegedly killing his pregnant wife by slitting her throat with a pair of scissors and trying to pass it off as a robbery attempt, police said on Wednesday.
According to police, Anshul Dhawan (31) got married to Mehak (27) in September last year. Both worked in Gurugram.
Police received a call on Sunday night reporting that some unidentified people tried to rob Anshul, took his car and kidnapped his wife, SHO Badli, Inspector Suresh said.
When police reached the spot, they found the woman's body near a dry canal with injury marks on her neck, he said.
Suspecting inconsistencies in Anshul's version of events, police took him into custody for interrogation. He confessed that he had killed Mehak with a pair of scissors, wearing gloves, over suspicions about her character, SHO said.
"During his questioning, it came to light that he had pre-planned the murder. His wife worked in a private bank in Gurugram. He had doubts that she talked to her friends, and he did not like it," SHO added. Following the confession, Anshul was arrested on Monday.
Further investigation into the matter is underway, police said.
Mehak's sister, Shruti, told the reporters that the family had doubts that Anshul was involved in the murder. She said, "We want justice; the killer should be hanged. He did not even think that his wife was two months pregnant."
She said on February 15, Anshul came to their house and stayed only for ten minutes and left with Mehal for Gurugram.
Shruti alleged that Anshul had pre-planned the murder.
