Prof. P.V. Koparkar

Professor (Retired 2020), Department of Basic Sciences & Social Sciences, School of Technology, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong.

Research Experience

My primary research focus has been on Geophysical Studies particularly in the Upper atmosphere and related areas. Therefore I have always been closely involved in research in experimental atmospheric physics. I have over 25 years of experience in design, development, fabrication, installation and working of experimental setups for various upper atmospheric studies. I was instrumental in establishing systems for Ionospheric radio wave scintillation studies at low latitudes, at the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism, Colaba, Bombay. I have designed and fabricated over a 20 VHF radio receivers to receive radio beacon signals at 244 MHz. We had set up a chain of 20 stations from geomagnetic equator, (stations Trivandrum and Tiruchendur) to Appleton Anomaly crest region (Station Ahmedabad). While at the Nagpur University, I was very closely associated with Ionospheric Research Group at the Electronics & Space Physics Laboratory in the Department of Physics. We were able to develop and implement a low cost HF Doppler Radar system for Ionospheric studies under the AICPITS (All India Coordinated Programme on Ionosphere-Thermosphere Studies) Project. 

Experience of guiding Ph.D Scholars/ M.Phil Students/ P.G. Students’ Projects

Due to the nature of my job constraints at various posts/ positions held by me, I have not been directly involved in guiding any Ph.D./ M.Phil scholars. However, I have considerable experience of providing support in this connection. I have been involved with six Ph.D. students who were registered for their Ph. D., in their instrumentation, data interpretation, and analysis and so on. I was directly involved with one student registered for M.D., by way of fabrication of necessary (biomedical) instrumentation, data acquisition and related software, which was instrumental in the award of an M.D. degree .Regarding project work of P.G. students, during my tenure at Nagpur University, I was associated with the M. Sc. (Electronics) students for many years. I was their project supervisor, and intimately involved at different stages of their project work. Over 80 students were guided by me during my stay at Nagpur University. At NEHU, Shillong, I supervised and guided one 4th Semester M. Sc students at the Department of Physics in her instrumentation project. In short, I have been associated with Ph. D. / M. Phil programmes as a co- investigator/ co- guide which has been appropriately acknowledged.  After I was permanently transferred to BSSS, in School of Technology in 2011 I got the opportunity to guide my own PhD students. In 2012, two students were registered with me for Ph. D. One of them working in Atmospheric Sciences and the second one is working on Nanomaterials synthesis and characterization (who left due to health issues). The student working in Atmospheric Science received PhD degree as detailed below.