The Times Of India
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), a community of world's leading astronomers and geophysicists, on Friday awarded its prestigious fellowship to Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) scientist Rajmal Jain. He is the only scientist on the Asian continent to be conferred the fellowship.
Jain is professor at the astronomy and astrophysics division at the PRL. He led the development and exploitation of space and ground-based instrumentation in India, including the SOXS X-ray spectrometer flown successfully aboard the GSAT-2 spacecraft.
SOXS was the country's first solar astronomy space-borne experiment in May 2003. The mission had worked successfully for 8 years. Jain discovered the presence of iron and nickel in the outer solar atmosphere known as corona. Through his research, Jain demonstrated that solar radiation influences the earth's climate as well as the atmosphere of the other planets.
Talking to TOI, Jain said, "I was surprised by the announcement. Its an honor for any astronomer. My dream is to see more youngsters in my country to pursue research in this field. In my research, I found the presence of iron and nickel which indicated that the Sun was expanding and had completed half its life. My department also studies solar flares and mass ejections on the sun. These affects earth's climate."
A press release of RAS read, "Jain's enthusiasm for developing instrumentation over the years has inspired new generations in India to be involved in hardware projects. In the field of outreach, for the last 20 years he has organized scientific and telescope-making workshops for school students in several Indian states, promoting science and technology education in rural India."
The prizes honor individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to astronomy and geophysics and will be conferred the awards and fellowships this year at the National Astronomy Meeting to be held in Portsmouth in June.
Professor David Southwood, President of RAS, in a press release congratulated Jain.