Y. Bhavani Kumar

Dr. Bhavani Kumar Yellapragada is a Senior Scientist and technologist working presently at the National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL), an autonomous unit under the Department of Space (DOS), Government of India. Dr. Kumar has made significant technical contributions to laser instrumentation for environmental research in India. In 2016, he obtained the first Indian patent grant for lidar technology that works with micro-pulse technique. This micro pulse technology was transferred to an Indian Industry by name M/s General Optics (Asia) Ltd, Pondicherry for commercial lidar fabrication in the country. In 2020, he obtained another patent grant for a lidar technology that works with Raman scattering principle. This technology was successfully employed to profile the atmospheric water vapour. In 2022, the period of 75 years of Indian independence, he obtained another patent grant for a lidar technology that works with polarization technique. The polarization lidar technology is a spin off technology and was transferred to two of Indian industries for commercialization in 2015. The DPL technology has been listed under "Make In India" program of Prime Minister (PM) under space sector. Recently, he invented a novel passive sensor for remote sensing solar induced fluorescence (SIF) from biosphere. SIF technology is currently under filing for patent rights. The lidar technologies developed by Dr. Kumar have been employed to remote-sense the atmospheric boundary layer, aerosol, clouds, water vapor, winds, and mesospheric Sodium. His works were recognized by the Indian Space Research organization (ISRO) and conferred with ISRO's prestigious Merit Award (Individual reward cum award) in 2017. Dr. Kumar is a recipient of the service excellence award from NARL and also a gold medalist. Dr. Kumar has several national and international publications. His current Scopus index is 16. Dr. Kumar has guided 27 PG Students in LIDAR remote sensing field. Under his supervision, two Ph.D. students obtained doctoral degrees in the area of laser remote-sensing. Dr. Kumar is a recognized mentor of summer research fellowship (SRF) program of Indian National Science Academy (INSA), IISc, Bangalore. Under this program he mentored 16 M.Tech students and 2 PhD scholars. Dr. Kumar is also an elected senior member of Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), USA and also a member of Society for Photo-instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), USA. Dr Kumar was a selected Fellow of the Instrument Society of India (ISOI). Dr Kumar is a life member of professional societies such as Indian Society of Remote sensing (ISRS), Indian Society of Geomatics (ISG), and Astronomical Society of India (ASI). Dr. Kumar is an honorary fellow of Earth science India (SES). Dr. Kumar is an expert member listed under VIDWAN, which is a MHRD, Government of India initiative.