Yen - The Founder

---

A Marine Captain, a Chartered Ship Broker and an Amateur Astronomer.

Life is mostly a blur.

One of the most valuable pieces of " junk " (as he calls it) in his collection is the discovery of an earth like exoplanet through the TESS satellite in Dec 2020. Exoplanets are planets orbiting other stars. TESS has thrown millions of observations back to us. He studies about 5 light curves of stars every day on average, that TESS sends back while hunting for an exoplanet. This planet orbits a star which is about 259 light years away and lies in the 'Orion Spur' - the same galactic arm as our Sun. It is a yellow dwarf very much like our sun and about as big, heavy and as luminous. This makes the discovery all the more exciting.

Their discovery team had 27 co-discoverers. He is the only Indian.

If astronomers and scientists confirm what they have found through ground

based telescopes, then this exoplanet will carry his name too forever, and

maybe something even more spectacular - signs of alien life.

How does he spends his time these days? 

Well.... For the past decade or so.... He has been studying. Somewhat endlessly. Even he called it 'stuff' when he started out, because most of it, he says he doesn't  understand. But he stays with it and dreams with it, and thus over the course of so many years, he has come to accumulate some 50 certificates from universities all over the world. In subjects like Molecular Biology, Astrophysics, Cosmology, Space Sciences, Radio astronomy, Dark matter, Quantum computation, Data science, Brain studies, Cellular Biology, Human Physiology, Anthropology, Justice etc. Five of his professors are Nobel laureates, and he is especially proud of studying with Nobel laureates Abhijeet Banerjee and Esther Duflo on 'Global Poverty', and Nobel Laureate Brian Schmidt on 'Cosmology'.

He is a tutor for a molecular biology course at MIT, and has been featured

in their magazine (2015 spring issue).

Some of the industries he has worked in besides shipping are of course as diverse as chalk and cheese. Frankly, he says, that even he is not sure what 'he' is and what his

core competencies are? 

He was given command of all sizes and types of ships, and sailed them to every ocean and sea in the world. He went on to then specialize in seabed operations, and offshore oil drilling platforms. He drifted off to Automotive Instrumentation, Aerospace, Defence

Manufacturing and Renewable energy. Somewhere along the way he found

himself heading a B school, a Marine Training school and a PSU. He even

designed a port in the Canary Islands (Atlantic).

He also builds his own houses.

Now his dream project is to establish a sustainable living community,

targeting zero carbon , while aligning with UN SDGs and India's 'Vision

2030' statement. Not to forget our alternative education modelled on what

humanity needs.

He is a Gold medalist Masters in Vedic Sciences from PS University,

Hyderabad. He never managed to collect his medal since 2005. Another gold

medal from 1984 is gathering dust in a shelf. This was for his Fellowship

from The Institute of Shipping which is the Indian equivalent of the

Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers. At one time he traded ships and cargoes

globally through the exchange houses at London, New York, Oslo,

Tokyo etc.

One piece of junk which he had hidden away is a critical international

mission with RAW. This is now declassified.

He holds a Ph.D from Ireland in Technology Management. He is shy of using the Dr. prefix. He is happy the way he is.

He is also a paranormal researcher, documenting phenomena for over fifty years.

He has authored three books under his  pen name "Yen".