Vijaya Ramarao

	Vijaya Ramarao Associate Professor of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay Country of origin: India
Left to right: Sunita Kedia, Diksha Makwani, Deepa Vankitesh, and Vijaya Ramarao

The interesting part of my job is that I am able to pursue both teaching and research at a premier institute. The satisfaction with this job is immense because I teach some of the best students in the country. The subject of optics and photonics is so visual that students are often excited to learn more, thus providing the necessary impetus for a continuous improvement of my own understanding of the subject. The job also offers me the freedom to choose a research area of my choice. As an engineering institute, it offers me the scope for a multi-disciplinary approach to research, which I consider vital in photonics. My research interests include the design and development of multi-wavelength sources for fiber optic communication, self-assembled photonic band gap materials and surface second harmonic generation in organics and inorganics.