Dr. Ramesh Bhandari: A Biographical Sketch

Dr. Ramesh Bhandari recently retired as a senior research scientist from the Laboratory for Physical Sciences, a federal lab in  the Washington, DC  area, where he worked as a senior research scientist on fault-tolerant quantum computing, with special emphasis on bosonic error-correcting codes, superconducting qubits, and quantum characterization, verification, and validation, publishing and drawing interest within the quantum community with forward-looking ideas. Another quantum project pertained to a detailed analysis of security in  quantum communication. Dr. Bhandari also investigated augmentation of classical network traffic flow capacity with the use of orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes of light in commerical and exploratory new optical fibers; a novel OAM mode transformation 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  guided and solved pressing problems of the company in synthetic aperture radar imaging, including interpreting the 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 more than 50 original  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 network papers were translated into Hungarian. Results of another paper in networks  were made an international standard by the International Telecommunication Union - Telelecommunictions (ITU-T). His most recent paper received a highly favorable review within the quantum community.  His research has also been recognized with medal awards. Dr. Bhandari's research work has over 1700 citations. He has also made presentations at  international conferences.

Dr. Bhandari mentored  students, research interns, and coworkers during the course of his career,  resulting in original work with publications. He taught physics for seven years at the undergraduate, graduate, and advanced graduate levels at Carnegie-Mellon University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, and New Mexico State University. He aslo served on several technical committes including  Ph.D. committees.

Besides being continuing to be involved technically, he likes to play tennis, swim, practice yoga, read, watch sports, travel, and engage in intellectual as well as light conversations.