– I obtained my PhD from IIST, India, in 2018, and I’m currently in the fifth year of my postdoc. My journey into astronomy was significantly influenced by my family’s passion for the cosmos. Even though my maternal grandfather passed away when my mother was very young, his love for the stars influenced her, and she passed it down to me. I remember staring at the sky as a child, feeling a strong connection to the universe. Alongside reading my grandfather’s diaries about astronomical events and space missions from the 60s and 70s, these moments looking at the stars guided me towards becoming an astronomer. I have never had any other career thoughts in my school days except being an astronomer.
🌍 To date, when did you feel that your research has made an impact? – One of the biggest moments was my discovery of a wave-like molecular cloud connecting two spiral arms of the Milkyway, to which I could give an Indian name ‘Gangotri wave’. This along with a couple more discoveries, received recognition not only in the scientific community, but also among the general public through media. Reflecting back on the challenges I faced during my early career due to societal barriers and a lack of awareness about pursuing physics compared to other more popular fields, I now find satisfaction in how my work has served as a response to those criticisms.
🌍 What have been the major hiccups or barriers that you have faced during your research career? – I feel many times, my own limiting belief has been my major barrier. In particular, I was a bit doubtful of my capabilities at the initial stages of my PhD. At that time, my PhD supervisor boosted my confidence and advised me that doing novel research can always be daunting and I should focus on learning. I learned that knowledge is the best answer to those doubts. The second challenge was the COVID lock-down, both academically and personally. I had just moved to Germany from India on receiving the Humboldt Fellowship when COVID lock-down was imposed. Having no scheduled astronomical observations, collaborations, and offline peer-discussions, it was a bit hard to settle down in a new country for work. But overall, I am quite happy with my research and healthy work environment now.
🌍 What are your hobbies outside the research work? – My research feels more like a hobby than a job to me. I really enjoy and love what I am doing in my office every day. I am also very passionate about cooking – it is like a meditation for me and calms me down when I am in stress. I like to cook even if I am not hungry. Additionally, I am also interested in painting and sometimes also paint astronomical sources. I am currently learning the ancient traditional mural paintings of Kerala.
🌍 In your view, what are the challenges women are facing in terms of diversity and inclusion in academia? What has been your experience? – The main challenge I observed in India was that women are expected to “settle down” in life by mid 20s. So, even though they want to pursue a career in research or academia, these societal barriers might lead them to discontinue. My parents fortunately supported me throughout, but I know many women who gave up their dreams just to have a stable family at a given time. This might have led to some percentage of gender inequality in academia. The research field is also quite competitive and it needs dedicated efforts and publications, which might not be possible for some women with children and family while managing multiple duties. Unfortunately, most times these choices are personal and I do not see a generalized solution. But I believe that the systematic changes in academia and family support network are necessary to manoeuvre through these challenges.
🌍 How excited are you about the upcoming telescopes and new technologies? Where do you see your research in the coming 10-15 years? – As an observational astronomer, I am quite excited about many aspects. High resolution and high sensitivity are very critical in the research that I do to study the centre of our Milky Way galaxy. Revolutionary telescopes like ALMA, JWST, EHT, etc. nowadays are taking the research to another level. People also study high redshift universe using such telescopes apart from the Galactic sources and altogether we are improving our understanding of the cosmos using such cutting edge observations. There are researchers also working in the solid state physics and other fields which are improving our telescopes and instruments. Being an interdisciplinary field is the beauty of astronomy. I love to follow these new technologies and their implications in astronomy. In the coming 20-25 years, we are definitely going to have many more breakthrough results. This is just a beginning!
🌍 What would you like to say to motivate the youngsters who aspire to get into the research and academia in physics? – I would advise them not to feel limited based on their grades and here I can give my own example. I used to be just a middle bencher, not the highest scorer in Mathematics and Physics during my school days. Sometimes we think that we need to be “exceptional” to follow a certain path, but this might not be true. Persistence is way more important, I would say. There might be situations and people to drag you down, but if you stick to your dreams and work hard to achieve them, nobody can stop you. The universe will give you what you want! I am the best example of this.