Professor Chandrakant S Shukre, Astrophysicist And Former Bengaluru Planetarium Director, Is No More

Indian astrophysicist Chandrakant S Shukre passed away in the early morning hours of 7 January 2022. He was 74 years old.

Professor Shukre has held important positions as the director of the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium and the Professor of the Astronomy and Astrophysics group at the Raman Research Institute, both in Bengaluru.

According to the tweet announcement by the Astronomical Society of India, Professor Shukre initiated many astronomy outreach activities in and around Bengaluru.

He was born on 15 June 1947 in Nagpur, Maharashtra. He studied mathematics at the undergraduate level to receive his Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree from Nagpur University, Maharashtra.

Two years later, in 1966, he obtained the Master of Science (MSc) degree in Physics from the Institute of Technology Bombay.

Thereafter, he moved to the United States of America and completed his doctoral studies at the University of Pittsburgh.

Professor Shukre worked for two years at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, Berne University, Switzerland, after receiving his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree.

He returned to India right after, joining Raman Research Institute as a Research Fellow in 1974. This would be the institute from which he would retire decades later in 2007.

However, he did also work as a Senior Research Scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO)’s division of Radiophysics, Sydney, Australia, from 1981 through 1984.

CSIRO is an Australian government agency responsible for scientific research in the country.

Professor Shukre is credited on 34 publications listed on the Raman Research Institute’s website. Pulsars, which are rotating neutron stars observed to have pulses of radiation at regular intervals, was a major focus area of research over his career and the subject of many of his papers.

After retiring in 2007 from Raman Research Institute, he went on to lead the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium as its director from 2006 through 2011.

As is the nature of the planetarium, he oversaw many science education and popularisation programmes for students and teachers at the Taralaya.

Professor Shukre was also a teacher alongside many leading Indian astronomers and astrophysicists on the Joint Astronomy Program — a collaborative effort between the Indian Institute of Science, Raman Research Institute, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, and Indian Space Research Organisation to train PhD students in astrophysics.

He was an individual member of the International Astronomical Union too.

Some scientific institutions have posted condolence messages on their website or Twitter feeds today (7 January 2022).

“The Planetarium regrets sad demise of Prof. C S Shukre, Former Director of the Planetarium on 7th Jan 2022." — Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium.