From Haryana judoka to Harvard scientist on new US council scouting alien life

From a judoka in Haryana’s junior team in 2006 to a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard, Dr Devesh Nandal has come a long way. He is now beginning an even longer journey — in search of alien life.

The 37-year-old scientist from Jatal village in Panipat was chosen last month to join the UAP Science Advisory Council, a new advisory group set up by Harvard professor Avi Loeb to advise the White House, Pentagon, FBI and the American intelligence community on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena — or, as NASA calls it, observations of events in the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena.

Speaking to The Indian Express over phone, Nandal said, “I was chosen to be an expert on the council due to my expertise in Astrophysics and Electronic engineering. Whether the UAP are of terrestrial or extraterrestrial origin, my expertise will aid the team in applying numerical and statistical tools to decipher the origin of such events.”

Nandal is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard & Smithsonian, with experience in theoretical modelling, stellar evolution and interpreting complex data. His role on the council will be to help separate real scientific explanations from speculation, and examine “strange” observations using the same rigorous methods applied in modern astrophysics.

“I expect to learn more about the fundamental principles that govern our universe. Clearly, these anomalous events are puzzling various government agencies. I wish to apply scientific principles and expect to understand the physics that operates such objects,” Nandal said.

The appointment comes against the backdrop of renewed government interest in the US in extraterrestrial life — a pursuit that has also led to raised eyebrows in the scientific community.

In 2022, the US Congress held its first hearings on UFOs in five decades, and the military has since promised greater transparency on the subject. This year, on directions from President Donald Trump, the Pentagon released a tranche of files containing descriptions of reported sightings on Earth and by astronauts, though none offered conclusive proof of extraterrestrial life.

Story continues below this ad

For Nandal, meanwhile, the journey he has already completed matters just as much as the one he is about to begin.

“My first time moving abroad to study engineering at the University of Leeds in the UK was a real eye-opening moment. Engineering and Astrophysics might sound similar to some, but in fact are quite different. I learned how to focus on tasks that have never been solved before… This allowed me to win the VITA-Origins fellowship (University of Virginia) and later the Swiss National Science Foundation fellowship, which paved my way to the US, first at Virginia, now at Harvard,” he said.

Back in Panipat, where his parents are based, Nandal’s father Dr Sumer Singh Nandal is a former Deputy Director (Sports) in Haryana’s Youth and Welfare Department, and his mother Dr Shakuntla Nandal is a former sociology professor.

Their excitement is palpable. “He is now part of a select group of scientists asked to apply modern science to one of today’s most debated topics. His role is not to assume answers but to make sure that every observation is studied with clarity, evidence, and scientific discipline,” said Sumer Singh, who has been a judo coach “for 27 years”.

Story continues below this ad

“Devesh began participating in judo at the age of 10 when he used to go to Hisar’s Mahavir Stadium where I coached for years. By 2006, he was part of a seven-member junior team from Haryana that won gold at the Junior Judo Federation Cup in Hisar. After he turned 17, his interests shifted. We noticed he was more keen on science and decided to encourage him,” Singh said.

Shakuntla says Devesh’s fascination with science began “much earlier”. “By the time he reached Class 8, he had developed an interest in the stars. He would ask endless questions about their size and names, and even bought a telescope to observe them more clearly. Soon, he was watching documentaries on Stephen Hawking and reading books on science,” she said.

Nandal says ever since he can remember, he has been “fascinated about the origin of our universe and our place in it”.

“My first passion is understanding how stars evolve, and I have always wondered that the sheer numbers of stars in our galaxy, the milky way, let alone the universe is so vast, there is a large statistical likelihood that life could have originated elsewhere in the universe. Now I have the chance to explore this with an approach deeply rooted in physical laws, and find out whether we are seeing something otherworldly or not. In either case, I am excited to understand the unknown,” he said.

Story continues below this ad

Nandal is married to Dr Virginia Thompson, a US citizen who is currently a human rights officer at the United Nations Office in Geneva.

On the new council, he features among several experts with specialisations across sectors — from data analysis and statistics to anomaly identification, AI tools, oceanography, physics, economics, molecular biology, anthropology, instrumentation, and quantitative psychology.

Explaining these choices in a blog posted on June 19, Prof Avi Loeb wrote: “My approach was to select a few young nerds with exceptional technical skills who are fluent with the latest AI systems… The unifying thread among all members is that I know them personally and can attest that they are all brilliant.”