Eminent scientist Ajit Kumar Mohanty from Odisha has been appointed as the head of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), India’s premier multidisciplinary nuclear research centre headquartered in Mumbai. Mohanty was appointed as the Director of the BARC for a tenure of three years, said a Union Ministry of Personnel order on Wednesday.
The post had been lying vacant for the last six months. Mohanty’s appointment has come amidst brewing tension between India and Pakistan. Currently, Mohanty is posted as the Director of Physics Group in BARC and Director of Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in Kolkata. He had played a key role in setting up the country’s second deepest underground laboratory at Jadugoda inside the uranium mine.