Odia scientist takes charge as Barc head

BHUBANESWAR: Dr A.K. Mohanty, a distinguished scientist and the director of physics group of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (Barc) and director of Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, on Tuesday took over as Barc director from K.N. Vyas, chairman of Atomic Energy Commission and secretary to the Union ministry of atomic energy.

Dr Mohanty graduated from the 26th batch of the Barc Training School and joined Nuclear Physics Division of Barc 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 relativistic regime. It includes experiment using Pelletron accelerator at TIFR, PHENIX and CMS experiments at Brookhaven National Laboratory, 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).