Govind Swarup was responsible for the construction of the Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT) of unique design, which has provided very large gathering power at relatively low cost. His proposal for a giant metre-wavelength radio telescope of collecting area 50,000 square metres was funded for implementation. He was responsible for competence in India for the design and fabrication of antennas of all types.
His principal research contributions covered, amongst other topics: discovery of type U solar radio bursts, gyromagnetic model of solar radiation; lunar occultation of weak extragalactic radio sources using ORT; angular size–flux density relation for these, along with angular size counts, to provide independent evidence against the Steady State model; and the characteristics of jets, cores and hot spots of quasars.
Govind’s numerous awards included the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, the Herschel Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, the URSI Dellinger Medal, and the Grote Reber Medal of Australia.
Professor Govind Swarup FRS died on 7 September 2020.
Professional position
- Distinguished Fellow, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Pune), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
Subject groups
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Astronomy and Physics
Astrophysics
