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Dr. Varun Bhalerao 🎓

Dr. Varun Bhalerao is an astrophysicist at IIT Bombay.

He obtained a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay, followed by a Ph.D. from Caltech in 2012.

During his thesis, he worked on NuSTAR — the first focusing hard X-ray telescope (Caltech / JPL / NASA mission).

At IIT Bombay, his group leads the development of GROWTH-India — India's first fully robotic telescope.

He is the principal investigator of the proposed Daksha mission — one of the most sensitive telescopes for high-energy transients.

Research & Achievements 🚀

Dr. Bhalerao worked on High Mass X-ray Binaries using optical and infrared telescopes to measure neutron star masses.

At IUCAA Pune, he led calibration of the CZT Imager on AstroSat — India's multi-wavelength space telescope.

He has received:

  • 🏅 Vainu Bappu Gold Medal (Astronomical Society of India)
  • 🏅 Zubin Kembhavi Award
  • 🏅 IIT Bombay Early Research Achiever Award (2019)
  • 🏅 Excellence in Teaching Award (2023)
  • 🏅 Fundamental Research Award (2025)

He has published 130+ research papers and mentored 100+ students, many of whom went to institutions like Caltech, Harvard, Oxford, Berkeley, and more.