Anand Bhatia

Anand was born on January 26, 1934 to Lal Chand and Vidya Vati Bhatia in India. He received his bachelor of science (1953) and master of science (1955) degrees from St. Stephen’s College at the University of Delhi. He came to the United States to study at the University of Maryland and obtained his PhD in physics in 1963. At the time, the country was actively seeking immigrants to study and work in the scientific fields. He was among the early group of Indians to be educated and gain employment in the country. As a student he met his future wife, Bijoya Bhatia, and they married in 1963. She died in 2005.

Anand’s first position was as an assistant professor at Wesleyan University, Connecticut. He was not interested in a career in academia, and in 1963 he joined National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, first as a National Academy research fellow, and then as a federal government employee in 1965. Although he retired in 2008, he held emeritus status and continued to actively conduct research and publish well into retirement. His last paper was published two months ago and in January he served as a session chair at the International Online Conference on Atoms. In 1987, Anand was honored as Fellow of the American Physical Society and in 2009, he was recognized as an Outstanding Referee of the Physical Review.

Survivors include his two children, Sharmila Bhatia of Berwyn Heights and Sudeep Bhatia of Silver Spring.