Key Contributors
By admin; Published 02 Aug 2011
Pavan K Murthy
As one of the prime individuals behind BAS and it's inception as a formal organization, Pavan's association with BAS goes right back to day zero. His contributions towards BAS - it's foundations, goals and principles have been voracious, as have been his efforts in various other administration tasks.
Pavan has served BAS as it's General Secretary from it's founding, up till 2009. He also maintains the BAS website, various social and online bases and other web resources.
His Astronomy interests include Observing, Astrophotography, Physics and Software. An IT-consultant by trade, his other interests include software freedom, Indian classical music, literature, travel, adventure and photography.
Email: pavan at grahana dot net
Web: http://grahana.net/
Hemant Hariyani
Hemant Hariyani is one of the founding members of BAS and one of the key people behind it's inception as a formal organization. As the president of BAS ever since, He has helped formulate and provide directionality towards BAS values and activities that keep us going today. He's also been a prolific contributor to BAS activities often taking various activity initiatives by himself and inspiring others by example.
His Astronomy interests include Astrophysics, Observing, Astrophotography as well as instrumentation. He also pursues a Masters' degree in Astrophysics. Apart from his good humor, Hemant is also known for the number of telescopes he's owned - which he has also generously shared with others for all BAS activities.
Hemant is currently based in Texas, USA. He continues to take keen interest in BAS activities albeit remotely, until he is slated to return.
Email: hemanthariyani at gmail dot com
Naveen Nanjundappa
Naveen joined BAS in September 2006. Ever since, he's been instrumental in organizing, handling and mentoring our outreach activities. Naveen has also been the Vice-president of BAS through this period and his work in managing BAS administrative activities and Volunteers has been enormous. Naveen also handles our public relations and is the first point of contact for various interests in BAS. He also speaks at various amateur astronomy sermons and programs for school children.
His Astronomy interests include Observing, Astrophotography and Physics. Apart from working tirelessly for BAS, Naveen is a software professional for a living. On the parallel, he also pursues a Masters degree in Physics.
Email: naveen.nanjundappa at gmail dot com
Akarsh Simha
Akarsh Simha has been part of BAS since Nov 2006 although his association with other BAS members goes beyond that. Since then, He's taken keen interest in BAS activities and has contributed voraciously to BAS administrative tasks and events. Sharing intense zeal and passion for BAS and it's activities, He contributes ideas, helps analyze and tackle problems and take decisions.
Akarsh is also one of the foremost observers in BAS. His passion for observing is reflected in his love for large aperture telescopes. Observing apart, Akarsh is also interested in Astrophotography and Physics. Akarsh also develops, contributes to and maintains KStars - a free and open source planetarium software for KDE. His other interests include GNU/Linux, free and open source software, Classical Music and spirituality.
By academics, Akarsh pursues an Engineering degree in Physics from IIT Madras a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Texas, Austin. He also plans to pursue physics as a career.
Email: akarshsimha at gmail dot com
Blog: http://kstars.wordpress.com/
Amar Sharma
Amar Sharma is one of the founding members of BAS. Famous in the local astronomy circle for his comet-obsession, Amar is a prolific and obsessed observer who's amassed 400+ Deep Sky Objects and about 25 Comets in his observing career. Amar's all encompassing dream is to discover a comet one day (or night). One of the most active people in the group, Amar is infamous for his restlessness to go observing, irrespective of the time of week, month or the state of weather.
Equally well known for his curiously amusing quotations, Amar in many ways personifies the zeal for Astronomy that is a common trait shared across the group. He enjoys much (and deserving) posterity in BAS circles for all things Observing related.
Email: amar10sharma at gmail dot com
Web: http://angelfire.com/space2/amar
Vivek Yerakadithaya
Vivek is the quintessential BAS rockstar, in the truest sense of this title. He's the current secretary of BAS, a dynamic character in every right and the guy who 'gets things done' behind all the scenes of success.
While not singlehandedly managing most of BAS's events and administrative affairs, he seemly switches priority towards his academics, as a final year student in Engineering. His Astronomy interests include Amateur Telescope Making as well as Observing.
Email: vivek at bas dot org dot in