Raghvendra Sahai
(JPL/Caltech)
Dr. Raghvendra Sahai is a Research Scientist at
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute
of Technology, Pasadena. He came to JPL in 1992
as a Senior Resident Research Associate of the National
Research Council, and joined the JPL permanent staff
in 1995.
Sahai obtained his Ph.D. from Caltech in 1984 with
a detailed millimeter-wave and infrared spectroscopic
study of the famous mass-losing carbon star, IRC
+10216. After a 2-year postdoc at the University
of Texas in Austin, Sahai went to the University
of Gothenburg/ Chalmers Instutute of Technology
in Gothenburg, Sweden. While continuing his work
on the mass-loss envelopes of dying stars like IRC+10216,
and teaching graduate and undergraduate courses
and supervising student research, Sahai began to
study molecular gas in planetary nebulae, using
the then newly constructed Swedish-ESO-Submillimeter
Telescope (SEST) in La Silla, Chile.
After almost 6 years in Sweden, Sahai returned
to the US in 1992. He became a member of HST's Wide
Field Planetary Camera 2 Science Team at JPL in
1994, and started using HST to image proto-planetary
and planetary nebulae. Not only have the beautiful
images (examples) obtained from this work significantly
revised our ideas of how planetary nebulae are shaped,
but they have also captured the attention of the
public at large. One of these, the Hourglass Nebula
was selected to grace the cover of National Geographic
(April 1997) and another, the Egg Nebula is featured
on a US postage stamp.
Aside from dying stars, Sahai's interests include
young stellar objects, brown dwarfs and extrasolar
giant planets (EGPs), and Seyfert galaxies. He has
participated in several studies related to the development
and use of a coronagraphic camera in space to find
EGPs around nearby stars.
Sahai describes his journey from a star-struck
youngster to a professional astronomer:
"If I had to choose one experience most responsible
for my life-long fascination with astronomy, it
would be -- (as a young boy) going to sleep on the
roof of our house during the hot summer nights,
watching the star-studded beauty of the Milky Way
house wheel across a pitch-black sky. During my
last year in high school (St. Joseph's Academy,
Dehradun, India), I was all set to follow in my
elder brother's footsteps and choose Electronics
Engineering as my major in college. My parents,
aware of my strong interest in science, encouraged
me to consider Physics instead - since at the same
time I also won a competitive science scholarship
covering all my college expenses at the Indian Institute
of Technology, Kanpur (IIT/K), I elected Physics
as my major. I applied for graduate study in Physics
at Caltech, got accepted, and had decided to study
elementary particles. But, during my last semester
at IIT/K, we were offered a new elective course,
entitled Radio Astronomy. Our lecturer, Dr. N.C.
Mathur, cleverly baited us by offering a free tour
of India's astronomy facilities! I took the bait,
and got hooked onto astronomy for good." |
