I watch that pretty life play out in pictures from afar :)

Hi! I am Ambica, a first-year graduate student at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Utah, my research focus being galaxies and cosmology.
As a physicist, I am primarily interested in the several probes of late universe cosmology and subsequent tests of fundamental physics and cosmological models. I am also interested in the evolution of dark matter and baryons, and their connection to cosmic structure and expansion.
As a programmer, I like to think about smart ways of dealing with big data in the field and newer, better methods of survey science and inference. Being a conservation enthusiast, a long standing goal of mine is to contribute in the development of efficient cosmological simulations.

Before Utah, I graduated with my Bachelors in Engineering Physics from Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, where I had the opportunity to work on several exciting subjects. Under the guidance of Prof. Shantanu Desai, IIT Hyderabad, I tested modified gravity theories on a galaxy cluster. My Bachelors Projects, which focused on galaxies in cosmological simulations and dark matter distribution in spirals were supervised by Dr. Gauri Sharma at the Astronomical Observatory of Strasbourg and Prof. Paolo Salucci at SISSA, Italy respectively.
In the Summer of 2024, I received the DAAD-WISE Scholarship which gave me the opportunity to intern with Prof. Daniel Grün at LMU Munich, where I worked on the optical follow-up of gravitational waves. I was also offered the Caltech SURF Fellowship in 2024. For a detailed description of my projects, awards and activities please refer to my CV.

Outside of work, I am an avid traveller, and I love to indulge in food, history, culture and architecture. I love poetry, I write mainly in English. I follow sports keenly, cheering for Novak Djokovic and Manchester City F.C.