Adarsh Deepak, PhD

Dr. Deepak is the Chair of TakshaShila Institute (dba Taksha Institute, www.taksha.org), which he founded in 1976 as a not-for-profit educational organization to provide intensive seminars, workshops, and other forums on a variety of topics of current interest. Taksha is headquartered in Hampton, Virginia US. Through Taksha Institute (TI), he also operates a publishing branch under the TI imprint of A. Deepak Publishing (ADP).

After he completed an MS in Physics at Delhi University in India, he came to the US in 1963 to obtain his 1969 PhD in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida in Gainesville. As an entrepreneur, since 1976, Adarsh founded several advanced technology organizations. As a researcher, since 1968, Adarsh led innovative R&D for the US Government — NASA, NOAA and UN-WMO (World Meteorological Organization) — and developed several innovative remote sensing techniques to measure atmospheric aerosol properties from ground, airborne, and space-satellite platforms.

As an educator, from 1959-1967, Adarsh taught Physics and History and Philosophy of Science at Delhi University and the University of Florida. In 1976, he founded not-for-profit Taksha Institute, to provide advanced research and teach intensive short-courses, workshops, symposia and conferences on cutting-edge topics. He has chaired 40 scientific conferences, and published 101 scientific papers and 40 edited books, including five in Dharma Traditions, and one co-authored book.

He has sponsored several free R&E programs, including: (1) providing scholarships for STEM education, since 1979; (2) publishing a free, peer-reviewed, online Journal of Small Satellites (www.joSSonline.com), since 2011; (3) supporting Science & Technology International Exchange Program (STIEP.org), since 1993; and, (4) supporting a 8-gm Nano-sat developed by six University of Maryland- Baltimore Campus (UMBC) students and one TI assistant, under the guidance of a UMBC-Professor, that was successfully launched to 640-km orbit on Nov. 21, 2013.

Adarsh has received recognition awards from and held memberships in numerous professional, community, and cultural organizations, including: the 2000 “Man of the Year” Community Service Award from the prestigious Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity’s Hampton Roads Chapter; Member of American Meteorological Society (AMS) & AIAA Technical Committee of Management (TCM); former President and current Advisor of the Peninsula Fine Arts Center (PFAC), Newport News, VA; former Board Member, Virginia Air and Space Center (VASC); former Executive Board Member of NASA Aeronautics Support Team (NAST), Hampton, VA; former Member of Role Model and Leadership Program (RMLP, Center of Excellence in Education (CEE), Tysons Corner, VA, in which minority students are selected to participate to learn leadership skills; Chairman of Indian Cultural Association of Hampton Roads (ICASH) entitled Sangeet Sargam; and others.