Greetings and a warm welcome to my Homepage!

My name is Dr. Devendra Bisht, and I hold the position of Assistant Professor I at the Indian Centre for Space Physics in Kolkata http://csp.res.in/ .

Scientific Interests:

Stellar Astrophysics – Understanding the life cycle, internal physics, and evolution of stars.

Open Star Clusters – Using clusters as laboratories to trace Galactic structure and stellar evolution.

Stellar Variability & Time-Domain Astronomy – Exploring how stars change with time and what variability reveals about their internal processes.

Exoplanets & Transit Timing Variations – Monitoring transiting exoplanets to study planetary system dynamics and detect additional companions.

ABOUT RESEARCH

My research focuses on how stars and star clusters form, evolve, and shape the structure of our Milky Way Galaxy. I primarily study open star clusters. These are natural laboratories where stars share a common distance, age, and chemical composition. This commonality allows us to trace their evolutionary paths with high precision. Using detailed photometric, astrometric, and spectroscopic analyses, I examine how these stellar systems originate and how their member stars interact with the surrounding interstellar medium. Open clusters also trace the Galactic structure powerfully. Although we know the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, we do not know the exact number and shape of its spiral arms. By analysing many clusters distributed across the Galactic disk, my work aims to uncover these structural details and refine our understanding of the Galaxy’s formation history.

A significant component of my research involves time-domain astronomy, in which I monitor the evolution of stars and stellar systems. Stellar variability—arising from pulsations, rotation, magnetic activity, or binary interactions—provides crucial insights into the internal physics and evolutionary stages of stars. By detecting and characterising variable stars within open clusters using ground-based facilities, I seek to build a clearer picture of cluster dynamics, stellar evolution, and population characteristics.

Recently, my research has expanded toward the study of transiting exoplanets to explore the architectures and dynamical behaviour of distant planetary systems. By conducting high-cadence ground-based observations of exoplanet transits and integrating these data with long-baseline space-based datasets such as TESS, I aim to improve the precision of transit timing measurements. This extended time baseline is critical for identifying and analysing transit timing variations (TTVs), which can reveal gravitational interactions, indicate the presence of additional unseen planets, or constrain the orbital stability of the system. This combined approach in stellar and planetary time-domain studies not only enhances our understanding of individual systems but also contributes to the broader quest to unravel how stars and planets co-evolve within our Galaxy.

Highlighted (latest) Publications:

(1) Optical Linear Polarization Study toward Czernik 3 Open Cluster at Different Spatial Scales

Uppal, Namita , Ganesh, Shashikiran , Bisht, D. , 2022AJ....164...31U

(2) A Deep Investigation of Two Poorly Studied Open Clusters Haffner 22 and Melotte 71 in the Gaia era
Bisht, D. , Zhu, Qingfeng , Yadav, R. K. S. , Rangwal, Geeta , Sariya, Devesh P. ,Durgapal, Alok , Jiang, Ing-Guey, 2022, PASP, 134d, 4201B

(3) Multicolour photometry and Gaia EDR3 astrometry of two couples of binary clusters (NGC 5617 and Trumpler 22) and (NGC 3293 and NGC 3324)

Bisht, D. , Zhu, Qingfeng , Yadav, R. K. S. , Ganesh, Shashikiran , Rangwal, Geeta , Durgapal, Alok , Sariya, Devesh P. , Jiang, Ing-Gue, 2021, MNRAS, 503, 5929B

(4) Non-sinusoidal transit timing variations for the exoplanet HAT-P-12b

Devesh P. Sariya et al. (including D. Bisht) 2021 Res. Astron. Astrophys. 21 097

(5) A search for variable stars in the four open star clusters

Durgapal, Alok , Rangwal, Geeta , Bisht, D. , Kaur, Harmeen , Yadav, R. K. S. , Pandey, J. C. 2020JApA...41...13D

Collaborators:

Dr. Alok Durgapal (Kumaun University, Nainital, India)
Dr. Ramakant Yadav (ARIES, Nainita, India)
Prof. Ing-Guey Jiang (NTHU, Taiwan)
Dr Ashish Raj (ICSP, Kolkata)
Dr. Geeta Rangwal (IIA, India)
Dr. Devesh Path Sariya (NTHU, Taiwan)
Prof. Waleed Elsanhoury (NRIAG, Egypt)

Project Students

Reetika Sethi (IISER Berhampur) has been shortlisted for Ph.D. program at MIT, Cambridge.
Deepak Bisht (IISER Berhampur)
Aruna Harikant (IIT-Mandi, now a Postgraduate student at the University of Sussex, UK)
Dhanraj V. Risbud (Fergusson College, Pune)