Malayali astronomer Aswin Sekhar elected to leadership positions in two global astronomical bodies

Kerala-educated Aswin Sekhar, India's first professional meteor scientist, has become the first Indian to be elected to the decision-making bodies of two premier global astronomical societies: the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) London and the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Commission in Meteor Science.

The young Malayali astronomer is now in the Membership Committee of the RAS and in the Leadership Committee of the IAU Commission in Meteor Science. Sekhar is an affiliate of the prestigious Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Calculation of Ephemeris, France.

The RAS is the highest official body concerning astronomy in the UK. The IAU, founded in 1919, is the highest official body concerning any matter in astronomy. It is the only body in charge of the nomenclature of celestial bodies and setting definitions for astronomical terms and phenomena.

The presidents of IAU have been eminent astrophysicists from different countries; the only Indian president of IAU was the Malayali astronomer Vainu Bappu, the founder of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics.

In 2023, recognising his seminal contributions to the field of meteors, the IAU had named a minor planet (asteroid) in Aswin's name. Aswin was only the sixth Indian to be conferred such an honour.

He is now in the august company of Nobel laureates Subramanya Chandrasekhar and C V Raman; Srinivasa Ramanujam, one of the greatest mathematicians the world has produced; the legendary space scientist Vikram Sarabhai; and the great astronomer Vainu Bappu of the Wilson-Bappu effect.

Aswin is already a Fellow of RAS (FRAS), given the honour in 2011 after he was recommended by two greats: comet expert Prof Mark Bailey and meteor expert Dr David Asher. "It helped me get travel grants to attend international conferences and meetings. RAS press releases of my work gave me chances to appear on BBC TV and BBC radio. So these things are great support systems for young scientists," Aswin told Onmanorama.

Now, as part of the RAS Membership Committee, he will be the expert vetting candidates and recommending researchers and scientists to become Fellow of Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS). "Selecting new Fellows is like giving them a global stage and support system to enhance their careers in astronomy," Aswin said.

His role in the Leadership Committee of the IAU involves setting rules and definitions and scientific terminology concerning meteor science. Besides, this leadership team will organise international meteoroid conferences in different parts of the world.

The Leadership Committee had its first business meeting last week at the Meteoroids Conference hosted by Curtin University, Perth, Australia. "Next Meteoroids 2028 will be most likely at the European Space Agency, Madrid, Spain," Aswin said.

His team has the responsibility to create awareness about giant meteors and fireballs that can be a threat to satellites, spacecraft, astronauts and also Planet Earth. "Our IAU Commission in Meteor Science has both theory specialists and observational specialists. And hence the set of theoreticians and observers collaborate, cooperate and correlate results to make our spacecrafts and space missions safer," Aswin said.

The IAU leadership positions are filled by democratic voting of the IAU's 13,000-odd members. The RAS membership positions are selected through a voting process by the RAS Council, made up of eminent British scientists. 

Aswin was born in Ottapalam, and did his schooling at Cherpulassery, Palakkad and Kochi. "Growing up in a small village Nellaya in Kerala, I never imagined to reach these places in global scientific bodies. My childhood mentors Krishna Warrier (former Additional Director, CDAC Trivandrum) and Shashi Warrier (novelist) had a big role in inspiring me into the magical worlds of physics and astronomy. They encouraged me to look up at the sky and look for celestial events like meteor showers, comet apparitions, eclipses and so on. This triggered my interest in cosmos and pure science. My mentors encouraged me to visit science museums and planetariums in different parts of the country," he said.