Dr. Ramesh Bhandari: A Biographical Sketch
Dr. Ramesh Bhandari is a senior research scientist at a federal lab in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area, where he is currently working on fault-tolerant quantum computing, focusing primarily on the evaluation and feasibility of bosonic error-correcting codes. Earlier, he had led the technical management of quantum system characterization, verification, and validation, where Dr. Bhandari proposed a novel approach to solve the quantum scaling problem. Another quantum project pertained to a detailed analysis of security in quantum communication. Additionally, Dr. Bhandari investigated propagation of orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes of light in commerical and exploratory new optical fibers, with the aim to augment network traffic flow capacity; a novel mode conversion technique resulted in a US patent. An earlier project on constrained network routing algorithms also resulted in a US patent.
Prior to joining the current research organization, Dr. Bhandari spent 14 years within the AT&T and Lucent Bell Labs systems (as Distinguished Member of Technical Staff and Principal Technical Staff Member), specializing primarily in survivable network design and graph-theoretic diverse routing algorithms for real-life networks; the developed algorithms were widely used internally and externally and culminated in a highly acclaimed monograph, "Survivable Networks: Algorithms for Diverse Routing" (currently with nearly 900 citations; the algorithms are often referred to as the Bhandari's algorithms, cited and discussed on Wikipedia). The tenure at Bell Labs was preceded by a one year stint at a start-up in Los Angeles, where Dr. Bhandari solved the company's pressing problems in the area of synthetic aperture radar imaging, which included interpretation of theoretical work of late Nobel Prize winner, Prof. Julian Schwinger, workig then as a company consultant.
Dr. Bhandari obtained a Ph.D. in Theoretical Particle Physics (under late Prof. Lincoln Wolfenstein) from Carnegie-Mellon University. He taught physics and performed research in a number of unversities, including the University of California, Berkeley, before joining industry in 1987. Besides his book (rated at one time as one of the top 20 books to possess in the area of telecommunication sciences), he is the author of 53 papers (including two as an undergraduate) in areas as diverse as quantum information science, graph-theoretic network modeling and algorithms, elementary particle physics, special theory of relativity,(classical) light scattering, and light wave propagation. A paper in the area of light scattering was specially selected and republished in a special volume (SPIE) of outstanding papers. Some of the papers in the area of networks were translated into Hungarian. Results of another paper in networks were made an international standard by the International Telecommunication Union - Telecommunictions (ITU-T). His research has also been recognized with medal awards. Dr. Bhandari's research work has close to 1700 citations. He has also made research presentations at international conferences.
He has mentored students, research interns, and coworkers during the course of his career, resulting in original work with publications. He has seven years of physics classroom teaching experience at the undergraduate, graduate, and advanced graduate levels at Carnegie-Mellon University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, and New Mexico State University. He has served on several technical committes including Ph.D. examination committees.
In his spare time, he likes to play tennis, swim, do yoga, read, watch sports, and engage in intellectual as well as light conversations.