BARC gets new Director

Dr. A.K. Mohanty, Distinguished Scientist and Director, Physics Group of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and Director, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata on Tuesday took over as Director, BARC from K.N. Vyas, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy.

Dr. Mohanty graduated from the 26thbatch of the BARC Training School and joined the Nuclear Physics Division of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in 1983.

During the past 36 years, Dr. Mohanty has worked in several areas of nuclear physics covering collision energy from sub-Coulomb barrier to a relativistic regime. It includes experiment using Pelletron accelerator at TIFR, PHENIX and CMS experiments at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), USA and CERN, Geneva respectively.

He is the recipient of Young Scientists Award of Indian Physical Society (1988), Young Physicist Award by Indian National Science Academy (1991) and DAE Homi Bhabha Science & Technology Award (2001).

While taking over as Director-BARC, Dr. Mohanty has expressed gratitude towards his predecessors in Physics Group who have helped him in understanding finer nuances of low and high energy nuclear physics. He also gratefully acknowledged the efforts put in by his seniors which have helped in the completion of projects of national and international importance in which he could contribute.