Pulsars, often described as Cosmic Light-houses, are believed to be strongly magnetized, fast rotating neutron stars, with over 2000 discovered in our Galaxy so far. In the long march towards the elucidation of the mysterious ways of pulsars, a few special ones have taught us more than most of the rest put together.
Apart from sharing our understanding of the origin and evolution of these fascinating objects, the talk will try to highlight a few illustrious members of the pulsar family, and the key messages they bring to us.
Prof. Avinash Deshpande worked at the Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, in their Astronomy & Astrophysics group, since 1980. He received his B.Tech and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from IIT Kanpur and IIT Bombay, respectively. He is primarily engaged in research related to radio astronomy. In addition, he is interested in signal and image processing, instrumentation, and understanding noise & uncertainties. He has been trying to learn about these and other issues in the context of pulsars, interstellar medium and radio interferometry.