Biography

I am an assistant research professor at the Department of Astronomy/Steward Observatory at University of Arizona, as well as the project scientist of Aspera UV small-satellite mission. Before I started my current position, I was a postdoc at the Steward Observatory, worked with Prof. Erika Hamden. I did my Ph.D. at Seoul National University (SNU), Republic of Korea. I was also a research assistant/student fellow in the School of Physics at Korea Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS). My Ph.D. advisors were Prof. Yong-Sun Park at SNU and Prof. Changbom Park at KIAS. I had worked with the instrumentation group (Head: Prof. A. N. Ramaprakash) at Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune, India during my Ph.D.

My research focus is on astronomical instrumentation and observational astronomy, in particular building UV/Optical telescope and instruments, and studying the circumgalactic medium and kinematics of galaxies.

Currently (as of April 2024), I am involved in and working on

• Aspera, a NASA-funded UV SmallSat space telescope mission for mapping the distribution of coronal gas at around nearby galaxy halos as the project scientist,
• FIREBall-2, a NASA-funded UV balloon telescope, preparation for its third flight, as a de-facto optical engineer,
• SHIMCO, a NASA-funded UV sounding rocket telescope mission, as a Co-I,
• Nox, a UV CubeSat/Smallsat space telescope mission concept for mapping the all-sky EUV and FUV background, as the PI,
• Eos/Hyperion, a SMEX/MIDEX-class high-spectral resolution UV space telescope mission concept, as a Co-I,
• K-SPEC, a ground-based multi-object fiber spectrograph for local galaxy redshift survey, as a member.

Previously I was heavily involved in the development of optical multi-IFU spectrograph (DOTIFS). I am also using SDSS-IV MaNGA IFU survey data to study environmental effects on galaxy kinematics.