I was born and brought up in Sonepur (Subarnapur), western Odisha, India. Education: Adarsha UGME School (Estd. 1921), M R High School (Estd. 1913), Sonepur College (Estd 1964). Sambalpur University (Estd. 1967). I got my Ph.D.  (Physics (Astronomy & Astrophysics)) from Joint Astronomy Programme of the Indian Institute of Science  (IISc; Bengaluru) & National Centre for Radio Astrophysics of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (NCRA-TIFR; Pune), India in 2007. After my 5 years postdoctoral research in Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA; Taiwan), I was invited to join UM-DAE CEBS in Dec 2012. I was promoted to Reader-F in August 2013 through an international expert review (for a Regular Faculty position) which has the approval from the Governing Council of UM-DAE CEBS.

Since June 2014, I am University Grant Commission (UGC) Assistant Professor in UM-DAE CEBS as CEBS authorities requested UGC to re-appoint me and two others in UM-DAE CEBS. This UGC position is a Regular faculty position (till superannuation at 65 years) created by mission Faculty Recharge Programme of UGC-Ministry of Human Resource Development (now Dept of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Govt of India). UGC provides me monthly-salary and start-up-grant which has partially helped establish my Nationwide Inter-University Citizen Science Research Startup named [email protected] Astronomy Collaboratory, India ( #RADatHomeIndia ), as presented in my UGC job interview and as per UGC service condition. This was the prime reason for my return to India.

I am a Member of the Principal Scientific Adviser’s Consultative Group to advise the Govt of India on various matters of policy relating to science and society (I am coordinator of astronomy sub-group).

I have received the Best PhD Thesis award in the year 2007 from the Astronomical Society of India. I am one of the three, who has been awarded "Samanta Chandrasekhar Jyotirbigyani Sanman" by SCAAA at IOP, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India Ref: https://goo.gl/PYjV97

Felicitated by Honorable Chief Minister, Govt of  Odisha (Shri Naveen Patanaik) for my astronomical discoveries and my role as founding Director and Principal Investigator of [email protected] for citizen-science research with the GMRT. Reference https://goo.gl/2gdC3e

For the same reason, I have been felicitated by the Director of Indian Institute for Science Education and Research (IISER, Kolkata), on 17th Aug 2019, in front of a gathering of ~130 students/scientists.

Similarly I have been felicitated by  Director, IISER-Berhampur for my leadership and contributions to Citizen Science Research in India in the field of astronomy and astrophysics. This was during an ODRAW with 155 participants on 19th Oct. 2019

Elected Member of The International Astronomical Union (IAU, Paris), My [email protected] fits their mandate of Office of Astronomy for Development and the global activity #Astro4Dev and #AstroAtHome www.iau.org . IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (Germany) and Shaw prize foundation invited me to speak on Citizen Science so that astronomy can reach all. Citizen Science Research is one of the most promising way to achieve Sustainable Development Goals defined by United Nations.  

I am an Associate member (independent) of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) India Consortium (SKAIC), and international member of Extragalactic Continuum (galaxies/AGN, galaxy clusters) science working group. SKA, head-quartered in UK, is an international observatory with India as a partner country (Mega-project of India funded through DAE & DST). This will be the world’s largest radio telescope to explore the Universe. My research result on NGC3801 (NASA-JPL-CalTech news) was chosen to represent one of the 8 big science goals of SKA in the brochure and appeared in all SKA posters of multi-city Vigyan Samagam exhibition organised by DAE DST NCSM Govt of India. 

Reviewer/referee for Time Allocation Committees of GMRT, ASTROSAT, DOT telescopes and for international journals MNRAS (Letter), A&A with impact factors 5.231 and 6.209, respectively.

PI of successful research proposals in various telescopes like GMRT, VLA, XMM-Newton, ASTROSAT, SMA, ALMA, Subaru, CFHT, KISO, HCT, Lulin …

Research Publications:  https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=paxEpRcAAAAJ&hl=en

Total citations= 560, h-index=14, Total Impact Factor: 93+ 

*** International Press Releases and news on three of my Discoveries (Exotic galaxy Speca, Cosmic Leaf-blower galaxy, A blue supergiant star the farthest star (Each of these 3 news created nearly 3 Lakhs Google hits)) and on founding the Indian citizen science research in astronomy [email protected] are linked here

1. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/jpl/news/galex20120403.html

2. http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=121556

3. http://www.ncra.tifr.res.in/ncra/outreach/press-releases/gmrt-discovers-an-exotic-galaxy-revealing-tantalizing-tale

4. http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2111311,00.html

5. http://www.naoj.org/Pressrelease/2013/04/10/index.html

[email protected], India (www.radathomeindia.org) is the only Indian Citizen-science Research platform in astronomy since 15th April 2013. It is a zero-funded zero-infrastructure nation-wide inter-university collaboratory of 150+ trained citizen-scientists or e-astronomers, dozen professional astronomers, and thousands of online-learners. Over thousand students/citizens have been trained on the basic multi-wavelength (UV-Optical-IR-radio) extragalactic astronomy by [email protected] We always welcome external cash/kind/moral support from any individual/institution, both Govt/Pvt, for our citizen-science research with the GMRT telescope, the largest such in the world, and pride of the nation. RAD has received institutional (infrastructural/financial) support from Vigyan Samagam (SKA-India Consortium, DAE, DST, NCSM, Govt of India), ICTS-TIFR, IOP, IISc, HRI, NISER, UM-DAE CEBS, Nehru Planetarium (Delhi), Vigyan Prasar (DST), IISER (Kolkata & Berhampur), IIT (BHU & Mandi), St. Stephens College (Delhi University), Thapar Institute, International Astronomical Union (IAU-OAD, OAE, & OAO), Dept of Science & Technology, Govt of Rajasthan, Govt of Odisha, Tata Steel, SCAAA, SKA-India Consortium, GTAC (GMRT/NCRA-TIFR), NIAS, University Faculty Association (India), etc. Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Govt of India, of which I am also a member, now promotes citizen science research. New Science, Technology & Innovation policy of the Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India also promote citizen science. Our Motto: Any BSc/BE Can Do research using GMRT sitting at home anywhere in India by joining [email protected] free of cost. #ABCDresearch #RADatHomeIndia #DilyGalaxyRGBC #DilSeDiscovery #NIUgalaxyRGBCanalysis
The Internationally Published conference paper (Hota et al. 2014) and Refereed Journal Paper (Hota et al. 2016)  are available through NASA ADS here

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016JApA...37...41H/abstract
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014ASInC..13..141H/abstract

Press/News release from ISW, Vigyan Prasar, DST, Govt. of India on [email protected] is here http://vigyanprasar.gov.in/isw/inspired_bollywood_flick_power_facebook_indian_scientist_builds_army_e-astronomers_story.html

International Recognition to  #RADatHomeIndia 
Nature Index has chosen [email protected], 1 of 3 globally, and highlighted in an article on citizen science research. This was also highlighted by the international SKA Observatory (UK) in their magazine Contact. The article is available here go.nature.com/2ZJraif

SKA & IAU: Square Kilometre Array (SKA) international organisation (UK) and International Astronomical Union (Paris) have given public declarations for students/citizens to join [email protected] SKA listed [email protected] as one of the seven radio astronomy citizen science research programmes in the world and IAU listed RAD as one of 20 astronomy programmes globally. IAU-OAD has supported one RAD workshop, and IAU-OAE has invited the PI to speak in their meetings. RAD proudly was one of the 5 selected astronomy citizen science programmes in the world along with Zooniverse, NASA citizen science programmes, NAOJ's Galaxy Cruize and CosmoQuest (USA). 

SKA:  Square Kilometre Array (SKA telescope) international organisation (UK) have given public declarations for students/citizens to join [email protected] SKA listed [email protected] as one of the seven radio astronomy citizen science research programmes in the world. Refer https://www.skatelescope.org/outreachandeducation/outreach-resources/citizen-science/   

IAU: International Astronomical Union (Paris, 100+ years old, largest body of professional astronomers in the world) has given public declarations for students/citizens to join [email protected] (especially so during the Covid-19 pandemic). IAU listed RAD as one of 20 astronomy programmes globally. IAU-OAD has supported one RAD workshop, and IAU-OAE has invited the PI to speak in their meetings. RAD proudly was one of the 5 selected astronomy citizen science programmes in the world along with Zooniverse, NASA citizen science programmes, NAOJ's Galaxy Cruize and CosmoQuest (USA). IAU has given grant support to enable [email protected] members present their research results and its model and co-organise the 1st international [email protected] Astronomy WOrkshop at the IAU Symposium 375. 

Refer: https://multimessengerchakra2022.physics.uoc.gr/educational-programme/ 
https://astro4edu.org/shaw-iau/sessions/citizen-science/
https://www.iau.org/public/callforonlineresources/ 

The Brochure of [email protected] can be found here https://radathomeindia.org/brochure 

Some of my other initiatives........
NIISS: https://www.facebook.com/NIISScollaborationIndia

QASTRO: . https://www.facebook.com/QastroSKAindia/

SARP:  https://www.facebook.com/SARPatCEBS/   http://goo.gl/VYLM2t

#eAstroLab:   https://goo.gl/qMpSmP

S3N3_India: https://www.facebook.com/S3N3.India/

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