Prabhakar Misra
Encyclopedia
Prabhakar Misra is a noted American physicist, who researches and teaches at Howard University
in Washington, D.C.
, and is currently serving as the Interim Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Born and raised in India, he came to the United States to pursue graduate studies in physics. He earned an M.S. in Physics from Carnegie Mellon University
in 1981 (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), followed by a Ph D. in Physics in 1986 from The Ohio State University
(Columbus, Ohio). After a post-doctoral fellowship at the Laser Spectroscopy Facility of The Ohio State University, he joined Howard University in 1988. He was a Visiting Scholar in 1990 at Northwestern University
in Evanston, IL. He currently resides in Maryland with his family.
Prabhakar Misra has been involved in basic and applied spectroscopic research that spans more than 20 years in the field of atomic and molecular physics. He has contributed extensively to the understanding of unstable and stable molecular species, which has included among others free radicals and ions that impact combustion and atmospheric processes. The utilization of the twin techniques of supersonic jet spectroscopy and optogalvanic spectroscopy has enabled the precise spectroscopic characterization of moderate-size organic species and the plasma associated with hollow cathode discharges. Besides the investigation of free radicals, neutral and ionic species in the ultraviolet and visible regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, Dr. Misra’s research has also covered a detailed characterization and modeling of adsorption phenomena associated with trace atmospheric species on a variety of metallic and non-metallic surfaces in the mid-infrared region via Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy and simulation of laser-tissue interactions using a liposome-dye complex.
Prabhakar Misra is the co-editor (along with Mark A. Dubinskii) of the well-known book titled Ultraviolet Spectroscopy and UV Lasers (Marcel Dekker/CRC Press, 2002).
Misra is a recipient of the 2009 and 2010 DC Space Grant Consortium NASA
Summer Faculty Fellowship award and spent the 2008 Summer on a NASA Astrobiology Institute MIRS & Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) Fellowship at Goddard Space Flight Center
in Greenbelt, MD. He has received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in 2008 for his commitment to advancing underrepresented minority students in STEM disciplines and his leadership in the foundation's Minority Ph.D. Program. During the Summers of 2007 and 2008, Misra was the recipient of a NASA ESMD Faculty Fellowship that enabled him to be stationed at Langley Research Center (2007), VA, and Goddard Space Flight Center (2007 & 2008), MD. Earlier in 2004-05, Misra was a Fulbright Scholar and a Visiting Professor in the Department of Chemical Sciences at The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, India. He received the NASA Administrator’s Fellowship Program (NAFP) award (1999–2001) (administered by the United States National Research Council, NRC), which enabled him to be involved with the Vegetation Canopy Lidar mission at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (1999–2000) and to serve as a Study Coordinator for the National Academy of Sciences’ sponsored study titled “Commercial Supersonic Technology- The Way Ahead” at the Aeronautics & Space Engineering Board (ASEB) (2000–2001). Misra participated in the Research Directors Conference that was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) in April 2001 and over a period of two decades he has served on several important conference panels (both as a member of the program committee and as sessions chair) relating to spectroscopy and lasers. He has served as an Organizer and Keynote Speaker at the "Soft Matter" mini-symposium, which was part of The International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences (ICCES 09), Phuket, Thailand, April 8–11, 2009. He has also served as a guest referee for the Journal of Geoscience Education, Journal of Chemical Engineering Communications, Journal of Computer Modeling, Journal of Lightwave Technology, Journal of Physical Chemistry, Journal of Propulsion and Power, Physica B, and the Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer. Dr. Misra has reviewed research proposals for the National Science Foundation (NSF), Agency for International Development (AID) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is (or has been) a member of the American Physical Society (APS), Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), American Association of University Professors (AAUP), Optical Society of America (OSA) and the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), and is a fellow of the American Society for Laser Medicine & Surgery (ASLMS), Inc.. During the period 1992-2007, he served as a Principal Investigator (1992–96) and an Associate Principal Investigator (1997–2007) for the Center for the Study of Terrestrial & Extraterrestrial Atmospheres (CSTEA), which was a NASA-funded University Research Center (URC). He has also contributed to education research by developing an Interdisciplinary Microcomputer-Based Teaching and Learning Platform for the Howard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and was showcased in the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Assessment (CETLA). In addition, he has developed Earth and Space Science Education curricula for the Earth System Science Education in the 21st Century (ESSE21) USRA program. He spearheaded the successful proposal to include Howard University as part of the USRA Consortium. He organized a Nobel Laureate Symposium on November 10, 2010 in which Dr. Douglas Osheroff, 1996 Nobel Laureate in Physics, was the invited speaker. A report of this event was written by the Society of Physics Students (SPS) National Organization. He serves as the SPS Chapter Advisor at Howard University. Dr. Misra has advised and mentored 30 undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral research associates who have been part of his research group.
National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship Panel, February 19, 2011.
NASA Aeronautics Scholarship Program Evaluation Panel, February 18, 2011.
2011 Fulbright Specialist Program Peer Reviewer in Physics Education.
2010 Optical Society of America Senior Member.
Guest Editor, CMC: Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.14, No.1, 2009.
Designated Howard University Representative on the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) Council of Institutions (2009).
NASA DC Space Grant Consortium Summer Fellowship (2009, 2010).
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Certificate of Appreciation (2008).
NASA ESMD Fellowships (2007, 2008).
NASA Astrobiology Institute Minority Institution Research Support (NAI-MIRS) Program Fellowship (2008).
Fulbright Scholar Award (Dec 2004 - Aug 2005), J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, Washington, D.C.
NASA Administrator’s Fellowship Program Award (July 1, 1999-August 15, 2001), National Research Council, Washington, DC.
Johnetta G. Davis Student Service Award (May 1998), Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Howard University, Washington, DC.
Professional Profile Cited in Marquis Who's Who in Science & Engineering (1992–93) and in Who's Who Among America's Teachers (1996, 2007).
Researcher of the Month (April 1993), BIOS, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Howard University, Washington, DC.
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, and is currently serving as the Interim Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Born and raised in India, he came to the United States to pursue graduate studies in physics. He earned an M.S. in Physics from Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
in 1981 (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), followed by a Ph D. in Physics in 1986 from The Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
(Columbus, Ohio). After a post-doctoral fellowship at the Laser Spectroscopy Facility of The Ohio State University, he joined Howard University in 1988. He was a Visiting Scholar in 1990 at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
in Evanston, IL. He currently resides in Maryland with his family.
Prabhakar Misra has been involved in basic and applied spectroscopic research that spans more than 20 years in the field of atomic and molecular physics. He has contributed extensively to the understanding of unstable and stable molecular species, which has included among others free radicals and ions that impact combustion and atmospheric processes. The utilization of the twin techniques of supersonic jet spectroscopy and optogalvanic spectroscopy has enabled the precise spectroscopic characterization of moderate-size organic species and the plasma associated with hollow cathode discharges. Besides the investigation of free radicals, neutral and ionic species in the ultraviolet and visible regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, Dr. Misra’s research has also covered a detailed characterization and modeling of adsorption phenomena associated with trace atmospheric species on a variety of metallic and non-metallic surfaces in the mid-infrared region via Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy and simulation of laser-tissue interactions using a liposome-dye complex.
Prabhakar Misra is the co-editor (along with Mark A. Dubinskii) of the well-known book titled Ultraviolet Spectroscopy and UV Lasers (Marcel Dekker/CRC Press, 2002).
Misra is a recipient of the 2009 and 2010 DC Space Grant Consortium NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
Summer Faculty Fellowship award and spent the 2008 Summer on a NASA Astrobiology Institute MIRS & Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) Fellowship at Goddard Space Flight Center
Goddard Space Flight Center
The Goddard Space Flight Center is a major NASA space research laboratory established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center. GSFC employs approximately 10,000 civil servants and contractors, and is located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA. GSFC,...
in Greenbelt, MD. He has received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in 2008 for his commitment to advancing underrepresented minority students in STEM disciplines and his leadership in the foundation's Minority Ph.D. Program. During the Summers of 2007 and 2008, Misra was the recipient of a NASA ESMD Faculty Fellowship that enabled him to be stationed at Langley Research Center (2007), VA, and Goddard Space Flight Center (2007 & 2008), MD. Earlier in 2004-05, Misra was a Fulbright Scholar and a Visiting Professor in the Department of Chemical Sciences at The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, India. He received the NASA Administrator’s Fellowship Program (NAFP) award (1999–2001) (administered by the United States National Research Council, NRC), which enabled him to be involved with the Vegetation Canopy Lidar mission at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (1999–2000) and to serve as a Study Coordinator for the National Academy of Sciences’ sponsored study titled “Commercial Supersonic Technology- The Way Ahead” at the Aeronautics & Space Engineering Board (ASEB) (2000–2001). Misra participated in the Research Directors Conference that was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
(MIT) in April 2001 and over a period of two decades he has served on several important conference panels (both as a member of the program committee and as sessions chair) relating to spectroscopy and lasers. He has served as an Organizer and Keynote Speaker at the "Soft Matter" mini-symposium, which was part of The International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences (ICCES 09), Phuket, Thailand, April 8–11, 2009. He has also served as a guest referee for the Journal of Geoscience Education, Journal of Chemical Engineering Communications, Journal of Computer Modeling, Journal of Lightwave Technology, Journal of Physical Chemistry, Journal of Propulsion and Power, Physica B, and the Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer. Dr. Misra has reviewed research proposals for the National Science Foundation (NSF), Agency for International Development (AID) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is (or has been) a member of the American Physical Society (APS), Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), American Association of University Professors (AAUP), Optical Society of America (OSA) and the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), and is a fellow of the American Society for Laser Medicine & Surgery (ASLMS), Inc.. During the period 1992-2007, he served as a Principal Investigator (1992–96) and an Associate Principal Investigator (1997–2007) for the Center for the Study of Terrestrial & Extraterrestrial Atmospheres (CSTEA), which was a NASA-funded University Research Center (URC). He has also contributed to education research by developing an Interdisciplinary Microcomputer-Based Teaching and Learning Platform for the Howard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and was showcased in the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Assessment (CETLA). In addition, he has developed Earth and Space Science Education curricula for the Earth System Science Education in the 21st Century (ESSE21) USRA program. He spearheaded the successful proposal to include Howard University as part of the USRA Consortium. He organized a Nobel Laureate Symposium on November 10, 2010 in which Dr. Douglas Osheroff, 1996 Nobel Laureate in Physics, was the invited speaker. A report of this event was written by the Society of Physics Students (SPS) National Organization. He serves as the SPS Chapter Advisor at Howard University. Dr. Misra has advised and mentored 30 undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral research associates who have been part of his research group.
Honors and awards
Office of Naval Research (ONR) - American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Summer Faculty Research Program Review Panel, February 25, 2011.National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship Panel, February 19, 2011.
NASA Aeronautics Scholarship Program Evaluation Panel, February 18, 2011.
2011 Fulbright Specialist Program Peer Reviewer in Physics Education.
2010 Optical Society of America Senior Member.
Guest Editor, CMC: Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.14, No.1, 2009.
Designated Howard University Representative on the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) Council of Institutions (2009).
NASA DC Space Grant Consortium Summer Fellowship (2009, 2010).
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Certificate of Appreciation (2008).
NASA ESMD Fellowships (2007, 2008).
NASA Astrobiology Institute Minority Institution Research Support (NAI-MIRS) Program Fellowship (2008).
Fulbright Scholar Award (Dec 2004 - Aug 2005), J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, Washington, D.C.
NASA Administrator’s Fellowship Program Award (July 1, 1999-August 15, 2001), National Research Council, Washington, DC.
Johnetta G. Davis Student Service Award (May 1998), Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Howard University, Washington, DC.
Professional Profile Cited in Marquis Who's Who in Science & Engineering (1992–93) and in Who's Who Among America's Teachers (1996, 2007).
Researcher of the Month (April 1993), BIOS, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Howard University, Washington, DC.