Dr. Bhavani Kumar Yellapragada

Dr. Bhavani Kumar Yellapragada presently works as Scientist SG at the National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL), a unit of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), India. Dr. Kumar has made significant technical contributions to laser remote sensing instrumentation for environmental research in India. Some of these technologies have been transferred to Indian industries for commercialization. These technologies have been employed to remote-sense atmospheric boundary layer, aerosol, clouds, water vapor, winds, and mesospheric Sodium. His works were recognized by ISRO and conferred with ISRO's prestigious Merit Award in 2017. Dr. Kumar has published 104 publications. He has three IPRs granted with patent status listed under ISRO. Currently, he is listed as an expert member under VIDWAN, an MHRD initiative of the Government of India. Dr Kumar is a recognized Mentor of SRF programme of three national science Academies of India. Under this program he mentored 20 students and guided 2 PhD scholars. Dr. Kumar is an elected senior member of IEEE and Fellow of the Instrument Society of India (ISOI). He also guided 27 PG Students in LIDAR remote sensing field. Under his supervision, two Ph.D. students obtained doctoral degrees in the field of Laser remote-sensing. In 2016, he obtained the first Indian patent grant for lidar which works with micro-pulse technique. In 2018, he demonstrated a novel polarization lidar system with a single detector. In 2019, he fabricated daylight lidar with polarization capability that works with a custom-built optics front-end. In 2020, he obtained patent grant for water vapour Raman lidar. In 2021, he constructed a steerable 1064 nm lidar with polarization capability. In 2021, he also has shown a novel passive sensor for remote sensing solar induced fluorescence (SIF) from biosphere. He currently working on horizontal lidar technology.