Bhaumik Prize Postdoctoral Fellows Program

Dr. Mani L. Bhaumik has been a dedicated supporter of UCLA, making transformative contributions that advance research and education. In 2025, his $3 million commitment launched the Bhaumik Postdoctoral Fellowship program, which helps UCLA recruit top postdoctoral scholars in physics, astronomy, and chemistry. 

A champion of students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty alike, Bhaumik’s past gifts to UCLA have supported many important initiatives, including the establishment of the Mani L. Bhaumik Institute for Theoretical Physics—a research center dedicated to advancing fundamental physics through theoretical research, collaboration, and education—and the Mani L. Bhaumik Centennial Collaboratory in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, a hub for collaborative science. Through these gifts, Bhaumik has strengthened the university’s ability to drive discovery and innovation across multiple scientific disciplines.

Bhaumik rose from poverty to become an eminent scientist who played a key role in developing the laser technology that paved the way for Lasik eye surgery. He was born in a remote village in West Bengal, India, and as a child slept on rags in the thatched-roof mud hut he shared with his parents and six siblings.

“My family didn’t always know where our next meal would come from,” he said. “I didn’t own a pair of shoes until I was 16 and walked four miles to school and back in my bare feet.”

Life was made even more precarious by the struggle for Indian independence going on around him: Bhaumik’s father, a freedom fighter, was often away and spent time in prison for his revolutionary activities. But Bhaumik’s dreams of a brighter future gave him the determination to obtain a good education, and his prodigious curiosity led him to become a scientist.

Studying under renowned physicist Satyendra Bose, he earned a master’s degree at the University of Calcutta. In 1958, Bhaumik became the first student to earn a doctorate, also in physics, from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.

Bhaumik came to UCLA in 1959 “with $3 in my pocket,” he said, on a Sloan Foundation postdoctoral fellowship. The people of his village raised the money for his airfare.

“I thought I’d died and gone to heaven,” he said of his arrival on campus. “Everyone was treated equally, not like back at home where the poor were treated like dirt.”

In 1961, Bhaumik joined Xerox Electro-Optical Systems as a laser scientist. He later served as director of the laser technology laboratory at Northrop’s corporate research laboratory. In 1973, he announced the conclusive demonstration of the world’s first efficient excimer laser, a form of ultraviolet laser now commonly used for high-precision machining and for cutting biological tissue cleanly without damaging surrounding tissue.

Bhaumik is a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and, in 2011, the Indian government awarded him the prestigious Padma Shri for distinguished service in science and engineering.

As a member of the UCLA Physical Sciences board of visitors, Bhaumik has witnessed declining funding for scientific research from state and federal government, particularly in the field of theoretical physics.

“It’s very difficult to raise funds for this area, because people don’t understand what theoretical physicists do,” Bhaumik said. “But physics holds the answers to the most fundamental questions of our very existence. Imagine what could be solved right here at UCLA.”

With previous donations to UCLA, he established the Mani L. Bhaumik Presidential Chair in Theoretical Physics and supported the work of a research group led by physics professor Zvi Bern. 

Bhaumik also has found creative ways to spark the public’s intellectual curiosity. He is the author of two books, “Code Name God” and “The Cosmic Detective,” and the creator of an award-winning animated TV series, “Cosmic Quantum Ray.” 

In India, Bhaumik’s rags-to-riches story has inspired generations of young people. He established the Mani Bhaumik Educational Foundation to support high-achieving Indian students and donated land for the proposed Bhaumik International Center for Advanced Research at the Indian Institute of Technology. 

The Bhaumik Prize Postdoctoral Fellows Program, made possible by a $3 million commitment from physicist, entrepreneur and philanthropist Mani L. Bhaumik, not only strengthens UCLA’s standing as a destination for rising scientists, but ultimately will serve to shape a better future through the contributions they will make to our academic community and to the world.

Launching as a pilot initiative within the division of physical sciences, the program will support outstanding scholars conducting research and engaging in service activities — including in the areas of policy and science engagement with the public — in all areas of chemistry and biochemistry as well as physics and astronomy. Each year for four consecutive years, four postdoctoral fellows will be recruited and appointed for up to a three-year term. The pilot program will support a total of approximately 16 fellows over a six-year span.

“The importance of a postdoctoral fellowship program cannot be overstated. It allows us to recruit energetic, rising scholars with great potential, who will be free to come to UCLA and do their best work,” said Stuart Brown, chair of the UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy. “We will be reaching out to departments throughout the U.S. and abroad to boost visibility, and we’re really looking forward to seeing how it evolves over time.”

The program also will support interaction across disciplines, career development opportunities, and training in intellectual property and entrepreneurship, with the goal of helping participants develop successful independent careers as principal investigators, scientific leaders, or entrepreneurs at top academic, governmental or industrial institutions.

“The best thing about all of this is that we don’t yet know what new discoveries will be made, because they will be fundamentally rooted in the work and talents of the postdocs that we will recruit,” said Alexander Spokoyny, chair of the UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “They will be the drivers of these innovations. That’s the most exciting aspect of working in science: you have no idea what you’re going to discover.”