Our Mentor
Currently serving as the director of Nehru Planetarium, Mumbai (since December, 2011); Arvind has been interested in Astronomy for most of his life. His first accolade in the field was being a part of the team at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics that became the first in India to discover a new Asteroid. This was in 1988 and the asteroid was named 4130 Ramanujan. The team was awarded Astronomical Society of India Medal for the discovery of an asteroid. On 23rd January 1990, the team discovered another asteroid 17446 Mopaku which was awarded its name after the 3 team members Venkatachala Moorthy, Arvind Paranjpye, and Kamatchiappan Kuppuswamy.
Arvind joined the Inter-University of Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in 1991 and was involved in science popularization with the institute. He has been writing regularly in newspapers and giving interviews on Astronomy in Television and Radio.