Odia physicist Ajit Kumar Mohanty new chairman of Atomic Energy Commission

BHUBANESWAR: Noted Odia physicist Ajit Kumar Mohanty has been appointed as secretary, department of atomic energy (DAE), and chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the appointment of Mohanty on Saturday.
DAE, which is under the direct charge of the Prime Minister, has been engaged in the development of nuclear power technology, and applications of radiation technologies in the fields of agriculture, medicine, industry and basic research.
According to the government notification, Mohanty will remain in the posts for a tenure up to the age of 66 years that is till October 10, 2025, or until further orders, whichever is earlier. Mohanty succeeded KN Vyas in the post.
Many people including chief minister Naveen Patnaik congratulated Mohanty for this new responsibility.
“Congratulate noted Odia scientist Ajit Kumar Mohanty on being appointed as the secretary of DAE and chairman of AEC. Wish him a successful tenure ahead,” said Naveen in his twitter post.
The Odia scientist was working as the 13th director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) since March 12, 2019.
Mohanty, who was born in Odisha in 1959, has completed his graduation in 1979 with honours in Physics from MPC College, Baripada and his post-graduation in 1981 from Ravenshaw College, Cuttack. In 1983, he joined the Nuclear Physics Division, BARC after graduating from the BARC Training School.
He got his doctorate from Mumbai University. He has worked in several areas of nuclear physics covering collision energy from the sub-Coulomb barrier to the relativistic regime using the Pelletron accelerator at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), PHENIX, and CMS experiments at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), USA and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva.
Mohanty was the president of the Indian Physics Association (IPA). He was the director, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics. He has twice been the CERN scientific associate, first during 2002-2004 and again during 2010-2011.
He is a recipient of the Homi Bhabha Science and Technology Award of the DAE in 2001. Mohanty has already received honorary doctorate degrees (Honoris Causa) from Utkal University Bhubaneswar and Fakir Mohan University, Balasore.