Raman Prinja

Prof. Raman K. Prinja is an astronomer, professor and author. He has been awarded the Pol and Christiane Swings research prize by the Royal Academy of Belgium and the UCL Faculty Teacher Award. He is the author of "Understanding the Universe" and "Visions of the Universe" and has written a series of astronomy books for children, including his latest book: "Wonders of the Planets".

Research

Prof. Prinja's area of research includes studies of outflows at the extremes of stellar evolution. Current projects aim to investigate the nature of mass-loss via stellar winds in a broad range of astrophysical settings, including: the structure of fast outflows from the central stars of planetary nebulae, mass-loss, clumping and the origin of structure in the winds of luminous OB stars, accretion-disc outflows in cataclysmic variables and, the origin and nature of mass outflows from young classical T Tauri stars. The work relates to many fundamental astrophysical processes, including radiation hydrodynamics and plasma physics, accretion discs, the evolution of stars, the dynamics and enrichment of the interstellar medium, star formation, and the functioning of galaxies. The studies are based on line-synthesis analyses coupled with multi-wavelength data sets, spanning far-UV, optical and near-IR spectroscopy, plus radio and mm observations.

Papers written by Prinja Include:
*Howarth ID, Prinja RK "The Stellar Winds Of 203 Galactic-O Stars - A Quantitative Ultraviolet Survey" "Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series" 69 (3): 527-592 Mar 1989, and
*Prinja RK, Barlow MJ, Howarth ID. "Terminal Velocities For A Large Sample Of O-Stars, B-Supergiants, And Wolf-Rayet Stars", Astrophysical Journal 361 (2): 607-620 Part 1 Oct 1 1990, have been cited 379 and 268 times, respectively.