CV

Education

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• Master Sciences de l’Univers et Technologies Spatiales (SUTS):
  Observatoire de Paris – Paris/Meudon, France
• Bachelor of Science (Hons) Physics:
  Jamia Millia Islamia – New Delhi, India
  

Research Projects

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• SMBH merger dynamics in massive elliptical galaxies – under Dr. Chervin Laporte (LIRA, OBS-PSL)
  This ongoing project focuses on simulating the dynamical evolution of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) embedded in massive elliptical galaxies. The aim is to test the long-term stability of galaxy models and explore SMBH merger scenarios within the Ketju/Gadget-4 framework.

The strategy involves:

• Compiling and running KETJU/Gadget-4 on the Tycho supercomputer
• Generating galaxy initial conditions with Agama, including NFW dark matter halos, Dehnen stellar profiles and central SMBHs treated as point masses
• Calibrating galaxy models using abundance matching relations (Moster et al. 2013, Behroozi et al. 2013) and observed properties of massive quiescent ellipticals at $z \sim 2$
• Performing stability tests of SMBH–galaxy systems over multi-Gyr timescales and preparing setups for SMBH binary mergers and gravitational-wave recoil experiments

Project duration: September 2025 – Present

• Resolved Stellar Populations of M83 with JWST/FEAST – under Dr. Divakara Mayya (INAOE, Mexico)
  This summer project focused on analysing the resolved stellar populations of the barred spiral galaxy M83 using JWST/FEAST NIRCam data. The aim was to trace the metallicity and chemical enrichment history of the galaxy and understand the star formation histories by studying the stellar populations.
  The strategy involved:

  • Constructing IR color–magnitude diagrams (CMDs) from resolved stellar photometry
    • Identification of old and intermediate-age stellar populations
    • Comparison with theoretical isochrones (PARSEC) to probe metallicity ranges
  • Mapping metallicity distributions across the disk:
    • Detection of significant metallicity spread in the bar region
    • Interpreted as evidence of radial mixing induced by bar-driven dynamics
  • Refining the galaxy’s distance modulus:
    • Applied the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB) calibration from
      Ck et al. (2025, ApJ)
    • Ensured consistency in absolute magnitude scales for metallicity analysis
    • Refined TRGB DM value within the reported error for Cepheids DM measurement for M83 (Radburn-Smith et al. (2011, ApJ))

This work highlights how JWST’s resolved stellar population studies can uncover chemical signatures of bar formation and provide precise distance anchoring in nearby galaxies.

Project duration: August 2025 – September 2025

• Impact of CTI on PLATO Photometry – under Dr. Reza Samadi & Dr. Diane Bérard (LIRA, OBS-PSL)
  This internship focused on modelling and correcting Charge Transfer Inefficiency (CTI) for photometric observations from ESA’s PLATO mission. CTI leads to trailing and photometric distortion due to radiation-induced electron traps, impacting the detection of shallow exoplanet transits and asteroseismic signals. The project aimed to develop robust correction techniques to recover CTI-free signal fidelity.
  The strategy involved:

• Simulating the effect of CTI on transit depth:
  • Quantifying transit depth bias for Earth-like exoplanets
  • Including radial radiation gradients and horizontal drift (differential CTI)
  • Motivated the need for CTI correction (3.95% bias against 2% threshold for PLATO’s science requirement)
• Designing a multi-species CTI calibration and correction framework, including:
  • Building a radial trap distribution model based on PLATO technical radiation note
  • Developing an iterative selection algorithm to determine the number of trap species
  • First estimation of trap release times via multi-exponential overscan fitting and correcting for smearing offset
  • Fitting of polynomial coefficients for trap densities, trap release times, well-fill power law parameter
• Validating correction performance:
  • Use best-fit calibrated CTI parameters for correction
  • Transit depth restored with an accuracy of 0.06%

This work enables high-precision exoplanet photometry, contributing a generalizable pipeline that supports PLATO’s demanding scientific accuracy requirements.

Project duration: March 2025 – August 2025

• Study of Galactic Bars – under Dr. Anne-Laure Melchior (LUX, OBS-PSL)
  This internship focused on the stellar population analysis of ring structures in the barred galaxy NGC 3351, using methodologies developed by the PHANGS collaboration.
  The strategy involved:

  • Familiarisation with PHANGS spectral fitting workflow and ring dynamics
  • Inspecting MUSE integral-field spectroscopic (IFS) data from ESO Archive
  • Preparing the cube via spatial binning and signal-to-noise (SNR) enhancement
  • Modifying and applying the NBursts spectral fitting pipeline to the MUSE cube
  • Generating initial maps and identifying structures such as bar, bulge, and rings

The project enhanced skills in IDL-based spectral analysis, high-performance computing, and the interpretation of bar-driven resonance structures in nearby galaxies.

Project duration: January 2025 – March 2025

• Kick-off meeting of the CNO Project – Observatoire de Paris, site de Meudon
  Presented the results of the research project titled ‘Potential of Gaia GRVS magnitudes for estimating metallicities’ at my debut conference, highlighting the potential errors in zero-point calculations of synthetic GRVS.

• Photometric Study of Metal-Poor Stars via Gaia – under Dr. Piercarlo Bonifacio (LIRA, OBS-PSL)
  Conducted a photometric study of metal-poor stars, aiming to investigate whether the Gaia RVS magnitudes (GRVS) available for 32.2 million stars from Gaia DR3 can be effectively used to estimate stellar metallicity.
  The strategy involved:

  • Combining GRVS with other magnitudes
  • Comparing it to synthetic magnitudes computed from red prism spectra
  • Providing reliable metallicity estimates for a vast number of stars

The project inferred inconsistencies in the zero-point calculations for theoretical GRVS, establishing a limiting magnitude for metallicity dependence.

Project duration: September 2024 – January 2025

• Ionospheric Study of Polar Regions – under Prof. Saurabh Das (DAASE, IIT Indore)
  Conducted an analysis of the ionosphere over polar ice caps using GPS and NavIC data.
  The project compared:

  • The distinctions between GPS vs. NavIC
  • The advantages of NavIC in ionospheric probing & space weather measurements

Project duration: December 2023 – July 2024

• Investigation of Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes – under Prof. Saurabh Das (DAASE, IIT Indore)
  Explored Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes (TGFs) and related high-atmosphere phenomena (e.g., Transient Luminous Events (TLEs)).
  This project involved:

  • Physical background research
  • Analysis of observational datasets from Atmosphere‐Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) on the ISS
  • Using Fermi-GBM data for UV/Optical Emissivity & Preactivity Measurements

Project duration: September 2023 – November 2023

Awards and Honours

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• Space Academy Fellowship – Île-de-France, France
  Awarded the prestigious Fellowship under the Incoming International Mobility Grant, supporting
  my studies and research in space sciences at Université PSL / Observatoire de Paris.

• Young Brainport Summer School (YBSS) – Eindhoven, Netherlands
  Selected as the only Indian Citizen globally in a group of 40 students for the Young Brainport Summer School 2018
  held in Eindhoven, Netherlands, organized by Brainport Region Netherlands Govt. & Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.

• NASA Ames Space Settlement Design Contest – NASA Ames Research Center
  Awarded “Honourable Mention” in 2 categories (Grade 8 and Grade 11) for manuscript titled
  A Life in Space (orbital space settlements).

• Remote Sensing for Earth Observation (RSEO-23) – IEEE GRSS Chapter, IIT Indore
  Selected for the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture RADAR) Mission workshop under
  Dr. Paul Rosen (NASA JPL) & Dr. Shiv Mohan (ISRO), focusing on Earth Science applications.

• Regional Competition for Essay Writing in Physics – Indian Association of Physics Teachers
  Secured Second Prize at the competition.

• First Position Holder for Semester Examination – F/o Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia
  Awarded First Position & Merit Scholarship for securing 19.58/20.00 SGPA in the 2020-21 academic year.

• Maths Talent Search Examination – Indian Institute for Studies in Mathematics
  Secured All India Rank 232.

• Class Representative (CR) – Department of Physics, Jamia Millia Islamia
  Elected & functioned as the Class Representative for Physics (Honours) Classroom in 2020-21.

• National Science Concours – Pivotal India
  Achieved Level 2 Certification for excellence in Cloud Chamber & Betatron science project.

Certifications

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• Certificaat Nederlands als Vreemde Taal – Katholieke Universiteit Leuven / KU Leuven
  Certified at A2 Level Proficiency in the Dutch language with “Distinction.”

• Design and Analysis of Algorithms – NPTEL, IIT Madras (2023)
  Participant of the course focusing on algorithms, graphs, data structures, linear programming & network flows.
  Lectured by Prof. Madhavan Mukund, CMI.

• Scientific Computing with Python – NPTEL, IIT Madras (2023)
  Course on computing tools & essential methods in sciences, instructed by Prof. Mahendra K. Verma, IIT Kanpur.

• Data-driven Astronomy – University of Sydney (2023)
  Course on managing data, implementing algorithms & ML tools for datasets in modern astronomy.
  Instructed by Tara & Simon Murphy, University of Sydney.

• Introduction to Astrophysics – Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) (2023)
  Course on gravitational lensing, matter-radiation interactions, and stellar evolution.
  Instructed by Frédéric Courbin, EPFL.

Affiliations

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• String Seminar Group
  Member of the String Theory & Quantum Gravity research group at ICTS-TIFR, Bengaluru.