Last week, Extentia welcomed a distinguished guest speaker, Dr. Somak Raychaudhury, Director, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) for a breakfast talk on ‘Technological Challenges for Astronomy in India’. Dr. Raychaudhury is an astrophysicist and served as Professor of Physics at the Presidency University, Kolkata. He is also affiliated with the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, and has been a member of various other institutes across the world. Dr. Raychaudhury’s work on stellar mass black holes and supermassive black holes is well recognized and formed a portion of the discussion.

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Beginning with the challenges facing India as it moves toward mega-science, Dr. Raychaudhury discussed major projects in Astrophysics and mentioned his association with Stephen Hawking. He spoke of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) India – a multidisciplinary project, this undertaking will inspire frontier research and development projects in India. A stimulating and intellectual discourse, Dr. Raychaudhury successfully explained an esoteric topic and enthusiastically answered audience questions.