University of Tasmania, Australia

ABSTRACT:

In the long march towards the elucidation of the mysterious ways of pulsars (which are believed to be strongly magnetized, fast rotating neutron stars), now numbering over two thousand, a few special ones have taught us more than most of the rest put together.

Apart from sharing our understanding of the origin and evolution of these cosmic light-houses, the lecture tonight will try to highlight a few illustrious members of the pulsars, and focus on some of the key messages they bring to us.

SPEAKER PROFILE:

Professor Avinash Deshpande [Desh to his friends] is from the Raman Research Institute (RRI) in Bangalore, a highly respected research centre in India from whence a number of Indian radio astronomers have come to work in Australia.

Professor Deshpande gained his PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay and a B. Tech in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India.

As well as working at the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore, he was a Visiting Scientist at the Very Large Array in New Mexico (USA) in 1999-00 and he was a Distinguished Visitor to the Australia Telescope National Facility of CSIRO in 2000.

Desh's first visit to Tasmania was in 1990-92 when he was a Post-doctoral student working with Professor Peter McCulloch.

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