Expert: Jayendra Upadhye - 11/27/2007

Question
Hello Sir,
           I am a first year engineering(IT) student.I have a dream to become an astronomer (or astronaut or an astrophysicist or any thing in the field of astronomy) from the day when I was in eighth standard in my school but I don't know how to get there.Even I have a doubt whether I am going on right track or not.
          I searched through the internet about career in astronomy but I didn't got the right guidline.I came to know that to go in the field of astronomy, the way is do BSc. & MSc.(in what? I don't know) and we have to give some exams(I do not remember the name of the exam as I have seen many exams on the internet while searching).
        Please Mam suggest me what to do now.


Answer
Hi,
You would need to do post graduation (most likely bsc then msc in physics / maths) and try to enter TIFR (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research), or IISC (Indian Institute of Science) in order to do further research.
In India at University level i dont believe there is much research done nor is funding available to see you thru any research for a significant duration.
Unless you are exceptionally good at physics/maths you cant hope to be a good astronomer nowadays. (knoeldge of

IT does help as you need to crunch numbers and work with computers a lot.

You could try and meet some one at TIFR/IISC for actual information, and try and be part of a research team there.

Cutting edge work is being done by those people for ISRO as of now to my knowledge, and we are about to launch the moon probe Chadra-yaan-1 next year.

With luck and merit you could be part of the team.

Having an engg IIT degree would be big help too.
hope that suffices,
Jayen.