A student from Andhra Pradesh, Kameswara Bharadwaj Mantha, made the State proud after he was awarded the first doctorate in recognition of his extraordinary research in astrophysics from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), the United States recently. Bharadwaj is the son of Kameswara Sarma who works as an Assistant Executive Engineer in AP GENCO in Sileru near Visakhapatnam District.

Bharadwaj completed his primary education in Hyderabad, intermediate from Vijaywada, and his engineering degree (ECE) at KL University near Vijayawada. He went to America to pursue his higher studies in 2014. Bhardwaj topped the qualifying examination held at UMKC there and was selected for his Ph.D. there. He has been doing scientific research in the field of astrophysics for the past seven years. Bharadwaj's research work includes the order in which galaxies collide in the universe. As stated in his LinkedIn profile he is an active researcher in the field of galaxy evolution and trying to understand how galaxies grow and evolve over cosmic time. He is also trying to implement novel machine learning-based algorithms in astronomy.

File Pic: Bharadwaj with his parents and sister

Bharadwaj's parents spoke to the media on Monday about their son’s achievement and his research. They said that Bhardwaj was the first person to receive a doctorate in the field of astrophysics from UMKC in Missouri. He received a lot of encouragement from Professor Daniel McIntosh, Mark Bradwin who supported him in his study, and that he received scholarships from eight organizations during this phase. Bhardwaj is currently pursuing another research project in the United States, which is funded by a NASA scholarship. Bhardwaj was also awarded a Gold Medal by the American Astronomical Society in 2018 in recognition of his research.

As per his parents’ statement, his goal is to return to India and work in developing the scientific bent of mind in students in the field of astrophysics and astronomy. Meanwhile, Bhardwaj plans to complete his post-doctorate and continue his research and focus on galaxy mergers and galaxy evolution.

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