Meet Dr. Kavita Sharma

Meet Dr. Kavita Sharma, 30, of New Delhi, a postdoctoral fellow in the Fiber-Optics and Integrated Photonic Devices Research Lab at Bar-Ilan University’s Kofkin Faculty of Engineering. Last winter, she flew home to India for a family visit, but then, with the global outbreak of COVID-19 there were no flights back to Israel to be had. Finally, in late July, she was one of 100 doctoral and postdoctoral students to board a special flight from Mumbai to Tel Aviv, initiated by Bar-Ilan University in cooperation with Israir. “I was very happy when I got the news of the special flight,” she recounts. “Bar-Ilan’s International School helped me get an entry permit into Israel and arranged the necessary accommodations for the 14-day quarantine period.”

Kavita, who was born in the village of Surhera and moved to New Delhi as a child, is pleased to be conducting postdoctoral research in Israel, and specifically at Bar-Ilan. “I had heard about the excellent research facilities here from a few graduates of my PhD university - the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras – who did their postdocs in Israel.”

Why I chose to study this area:

I have been working in this research area since my Master's degree in India. I am fascinated by how optical sensors are being used by every individual on this planet in their day-to-day lives. Fiber optics are the backbone of the internet and all major communication systems. They are cheap, relatively non-invasive and abundant.

My BIU supervisor, Prof. Avi Zadok, is a highly reputed researcher in the area of Brillouin sensing. He has versatile capabilities. It is my pleasure to get training from such a university. In Prof. Zadok’s lab, we use optics to stimulate microscopic mechanical vibrations for sensing applications. Fibers can be embedded in structures for sensing microscopic beginnings of cracks or used for mapping salinity levels in large water bodies. Our research isn't restricted to fibers alone but also encompasses miniature optical devices intended to greatly improve optical communication systems in the future. We hope that our research will help advance many fields such as oil and gas, aerospace and civil engineering as well as computer sectors.

What I enjoy most at BIU:

The green campus, the company of many international students and, of course, my lab and research.

Future plans:

I want to work in R&D industries to implement the knowledge I am gaining from my postdoc.

My favorite corner on campus:

Engineering Buildings #1102-1105 with their beautiful architecture and the students’ area in front of Building #604.

What I will take with me from Bar-Ilan University:

Excellent training in research which will help me build up my future career; and the new friends I have made from all over the world, thanks to the versatile international group at Bar-Ilan University.

Israel is a very beautiful country and I have had the opportunity to learn a new language, meet new people and explore different cultures. I would like to visit all the tourist places before I finish my postdoc.

For more on the Kofkin Faculty of Engineering: https://engineering.biu.ac.il/en