"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) , as well as part of the LISA Synthetic UCB Catalogue Group.
Previously, 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.
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 got my 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 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.
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.
