Dr. Smt. Vaishali Naik has taken over as Director of the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC) in Kolkata on February 1, 2026.
With a postgraduate degree from the University of Pune's Department of Physics, she joined the 33rd batch of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Training School in Mumbai (batch 1989-90).
Early in her career at VECC Kolkata, her focus was experimental nuclear physics, specializing in spectroscopy of exotic nuclei. Later, she led multidisciplinary teams of physicists and engineers to build particle accelerators for the rare isotope beam (RIB) facility in partnership with Indian industry.
Key achievements include the design & development of an Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion source, a heavy-ion Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) Linac, and a novel gas-jet ECR technique. These enabled the first successful production of rare isotope beams at VECC's RIB facility. As coordinator of the ANURIB project, she prepared the detailed report for a next-generation accelerator at VECC's new Rajarhat campus, centered on a proton cyclotron for R&D on nuclear properties of short-lived nuclei and medical isotopes via RIB techniques.
Recipient of the DAE Scientific and Technical Excellence Award (2006) and Group Achievement Awards (2010, 2012), she has over 100 publications in nuclear spectroscopy and accelerators including a book she co-authored, titled Rare Isotope Beams: Concepts and Techniques (CRC Press, 2022). Dr. Naik is passionate about cinema and listening to Hindi, Marathi and Bangla songs.