Anupama becomes first woman president of Astronomical Society of India

Team Udayavani, Feb 19, 2019, 5:15 AM IST

Bengaluru: Dr.G C Anupama has been elected president of the Astronomical Society of India (ASI), becoming the first woman to head the prime association of professional astronomers in the country.

She was elected to the post in the ASI Executive Council elections for triennium 2019-22 held last week, according to the Society website.

Presently the Dean and Senior Professor at the Bengaluru based Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Anupama is in the Indian core team which is part of the international team engaged in establishing the thirty meter telescope (TMT) at cost of over USD 1 billion in USA (Hawaii).

It is an international project, including India, which has been tasked with providing some of the critical components.

Anupama, who has presented many papers on Astrophysics (supernovae) at international conferences, was also Project in Charge for the design and establishment of the Himalayan Telescope at Leh in Ladakh a few years ago.

The Leh telescope is the only one at the highest elevation in the world and has been providing valuable data for the scientific community.

She has also been the editor of the Journal of the Society.

Anupama, who did her Phd from IIA Bangalore and her post doctoral work at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) at Pune, has been a faculty at IIA Bangalore since 1994.

She is also a recipient of the Sir C V Raman award for young scientists in 2000.

The Society is holding its 37th five-day annual meeting here from Monday, hosted by CHRIST (Deemed to be University).

The annual event is the largest gathering of Indian astronomers, who will be discussing the latest results from their research as well as plans for the future, ASI said.

ASI is the prime association of professional astronomers in India with close to 1,000 members.

Its objectives include the promotion of Astronomy and related branches of science in India.

The society organises scientific meetings and supports the popularisation of Astronomy and other similar activities, according to the ASI website.