"If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I'll bet they'd live a lot differently.
- Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes
Hi there! My name is Poojan, and I am an incoming postdoctoral researcher for software development at KU Leuven in Belgium. I am also an affiliate member of the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) .
Growing up in a small city in India, the night sky always fascinated me. I wanted to know everything about the stars and my curiosity has led me to places further than I ever imagined.
I have a PhD from the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. Additionally, I hold a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Lucknow and a Master of Science degree in Physics with a specialization in Astronomy & Astrophysics from Savitribai Phule Pune University. I was awarded the Prof. W.M. Dabadghav gold medal and the Prof. S.S. Joshi Prize for achieving the highest marks in my Master of Science course at the university.
I have worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the McWilliams Center for Cosmology at Carnegie Mellon University and a COSMS postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill in the United States.
While pursuing my undergraduate degree from Lucknow, I became part of the local amateur astronomer's club. There, I learnt to use telescopes and developed an interest in communicating science to the public. Over time, I have found myself increasingly involved in science communication. In 2019, I received the Director's Excellence in Outreach and Outreach Superstar awards for my outreach activities during my PhD.
When I am not working on curating stellar lives or developing resources to communicate them, I find myself busy with a wide range of activities. I enjoy painting, writing poems, watching movies, and exploring places - capturing moments with a camera whenever I can. During the great lockdown of 2020-2021, I also developed the hobby of reading books and playing board games.
