Guardian Angel

“I had an inclination towards the topic of space technology and satellite communications while pursuing my Bachelor’s in Electronics and Communications. I not only loved watching satellite launches by ISRO, but I also noted down the details of the satellites, including the materials used, name and date of the mission, and the like. One time, I even had to plead to one of my professors to let me finish my assessment early just so that I could see a satellite launch.

However, even though I was extremely passionate about satellites, my subject trajectory took a different turn under the influence of Dr. Raghavan — Senior HAG Professor from NIT Tiruchirappalli who had come to give a talk on Antennas and Microwave Engineering in a conference, where I was one of the organizers. Over time, he became a mentor-figure to me and motivated me to pursue a PhD.

While applying, I initially faced multiple rejections and was almost at the point of giving up, when Dr. Raghavan asked me to give my best shot at VIT. By then, my area of interest had taken a significant shift towards biomedical engineering of breast cancer detection; Dr. Raghavan motivated and guided me to prepare well for entrance examinations and asked me to apply to the PhD program of VIT where I eventually joined.

My primary motivation for working in this field was Dr. Shanta, a Padma Shri awardee, who ran a cancer…