Prashant Shambhudayal Rawat

Dr. Rawat has close to 2 decades of research experience at distinguished research institutions both within the country and abroad, with a focus on experimental Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics (AMOP). Dr. Rawat earned his doctoral degree from the esteemed Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad. He held positions as a Postdoctoral fellow at PRL, the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) in Gandhinagar, and the Federal University of Sao Carlos (UFSCAR), Brazil. He later became a Visiting Fellow at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai. He also served as a Research Professor at the prestigious Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in South Korea for nearly 3 years.

Dr. Rawat earned his doctoral degree from the renowned Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad. Subsequently, he continued as a Postdoctoral fellow at PRL and then at the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) in Gandhinagar. He also served as a Postdoctoral fellow at the Federal University of Sao Carlos (UFSCAR), Brazil, before returning to India as a Visiting Fellow at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai. Additionally, he worked as a Research Professor at the prestigious Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in South Korea for almost 3 years before joining UPES in March 2010. He led the Department of Nuclear Science and Technology (NST) at UPES as its Head from July 2013 to July 2018. Earlier, he served as Proctor at UPES' College of Advanced Engineering for two years, from July 2011 to June 2013. Alongside teaching, he supervised several Ph.D. candidates. His noteworthy roles also include being UPES' Director of Student Affairs (DSA) from July to October 2017 and serving as the Associate Dean (Innovation) from October 2017 to the following year.

Dr. Prashant S Rawat's research interests revolve around experimental atomic, molecular, and optical Physics (AMOP) with a specific focus on both electron and photon interactions with matter. His areas of expertise include intense radiation-matter interactions in gas phases using petawatt and femtosecond lasers, as well as electron interactions with atoms and molecules at low (0 – 20 eV) and intermediate (up to 1 KeV) energies. To explore these interests, he employs spectroscopy, photoelectron spectroscopy, and mass spectroscopy as fundamental tools. Recently, his research has also encompassed safety studies related to nuclear instrumentation and installations.

Dr. Rawat's teaching philosophy revolves around learner-centric education. He believes that as a teacher, his primary responsibility is to stimulate critical thinking in students. While creating an environment conducive to learning and knowledge transfer. Dr. Rawat strongly supports the integration of technology to enhance the learning experience and make it enjoyable and effective.

Throughout his tenure at UPES, Dr. Prashant Rawat has been actively engaged in teaching Physics and related courses, including laboratory sessions, to undergraduate and graduate students in various Science and Engineering disciplines. Lately, he has been involved in teaching courses related to Astronomy and Astrophysics. In the past, he taught a course on Nuclear Power Generation to undergraduate engineering students and courses on Nuclear Physics and Radiation Detection and Measurement to graduate NST students. Additionally, he taught Philosophy of Science to undergraduates pursuing computer science programs at UPES.

Dr. Prashant Rawat's accomplishments have been recognized with several awards and grants. Notably, he recently secured a sponsored grant from BRNS, DAE (GOI) for the development of detectors in the ADITYA-U tokamak at IPR, Gujarat. Earlier in his career, he received prestigious Research Scholarships at PRL for his Ph.D., as well as distinguished Post-doctoral Fellowships at PRL and IPR. Moreover, he was a recipient of the esteemed FAPESP (Brazil) fellowship during his post-doctoral work at UFSCar. His contributions as Proctor and Head of Department at UPES were acknowledged with the Award of Merit for Excellence on two occasions.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Dr. Prashant Rawat has been actively involved in guiding and co-guiding Ph.D. scholars. He has also been instrumental in establishing academic collaborations between UPES and ARIES. Furthermore, he actively participates in both online and offline outreach activities aimed at students in the local community and across India. His dedication to the field is further evidenced by his life membership with the Indian Physics Association.

psrawat@ddn.upes.ac.in