My road in life has been direct.
Grew up on a farm in a small village in India—left home at the age of fifteen to come to the U.S. to pursue her passion for science.
Was the first person in her family to pursue a career in the sciences—says she often felt like the “black sheep” in the family, but they always supported her.
Even though she had support from her family, she encountered a lot of negativity from her community in India for her decision to leave.
Her love for astronomy was sparked as an undergraduate after witnessing the launch of the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope and being part of the discovery team that analyzed the data.
Says that her Ph.D. dissertation work was actually “plan D”—she chose a risky topic that failed many times, but she made the commitment to embrace her curiosity and challenge herself.
Was a NASA Hubble Fellow and completed her postdoctoral work with a joint appointment at the Carnegie Institution for Science and Princeton University.
Currently works as an assistant professor of astronomy at Caltech studying the dynamic universe; uses a network of telescopes continuously recording the night sky to study changes in the universe.
She has also conducted research with GROWTH, which is a five year project funded by the National Science Foundation to advance our understanding of cosmic events.
Keep following my journey