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Dr Nithyanandan Thyagarajan

Principal Research Scientist

https://people.csiro.au/T/N/nithyanandan-thyagarajan

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Biography

I grew up in a small town near Ranipet in Tamil Nadu, India. I completed my undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras, after which I switched focus to astronomy. I completed my doctorate in astronomy from Columbia University.

After postdoctoral positions in Raman Research Institute (Bangalore, India), Arizona State University (AZ, USA), and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO in New Mexico, USA), I am currently a senior research scientist at the CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science division, based in Perth, Western Australia.

Scientifically, my expertise is in the fields of observational cosmology, and advancing fundamentals of interferometry and putting it to innovative uses. I am a member of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the Mapper of the IGM Spin Temperature (MIST), the Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transients Survey (CRAFT), and the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) collaborations.

Other Interests

Fundamental physics including optics, general relativity, gravitational waves, and quantum physics.

Academic Qualifications

  • 2011

    Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
    Columbia University, New York, USA

  • 2007

    Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.)
    Columbia University, New York, USA

  • 2006

    Master of Arts (M.A.)
    Columbia University, New York, USA

  • 2004

    Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.)
    Indian Institute of Technology (Madras), India

Achievements and Awards

  • 2022-2025

    Julius Career Award
    Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

  • 1998-2004

    National Talent Search Scholar (India)
    National Council for Education, Research, and Training (India)

Current Roles

  • Senior Research Scientist
    Interferometric principles for next-generation radio astronomy and cross-disciplinary applications, cosmology using radio observations, gravitational wave detection using pulsar timing

  • Associate Investogator of OzGrav centre of excellence
    Pulsar Timing Array data analysis and interferometric techniques for observing black holes through radio interferometric imaging and gravitational wave detection experiments

Fields of Research

Current

Grants

  • 2025-2028

    Principal Investigator of a AU$360,000 postdoctoral fellowship grant from the CSIRO Research Office for the "Energy-efficient, superfast, all-sky radio camera prototype for large, next-gen radio arrays on the Earth and the Moon."

  • 2024-2027

    Principal Investigator of a AU$360,000 postdoctoral fellowship grant from the CSIRO Research Office for the "Peering Deep into Black Holes using Classical Photon Interference and Deep Learning"

  • 2017-2020

    Principal Investigator of a US$600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation (ATI) towards the “First Deployment of an E-Field Parallel Imaging Correlator with the LWA” at Sevilleta LWA station in New Mexico, USA.

  • 2025-2029

    Co-principal Investigator of a US$220,000 grant from 2025 Regular Fondecyt National Projects Competition for “High-accuracy beam modeling of the MIST antenna over soil and site selection for measurements of the sky radio spectrum.”

  • 2022-2025

    Co-principal Investigator of a US$71,000 grant from CSA Flights & Fieldwork for the Advancement of Science and Technology for “Cosmology with the MIST radio experiment from the McGill Arctic Research Station space analogue site.”

  • 2022-2024

    Co-principal Investigator of a US$246,000 grant from ANID project ASTRO21-0053 for “Enabling Scientific Observations with the MIST Radio Cosmology Project.”

Other highlights

  • 2017-2020

    "Jansky" fellowship at NRAO (USA)

  • 2011-2013

    "Pancharatnam" fellowship at Raman Research Institute (India)

Professional Experiences

  • 2017-2021

    Jansky Postdoctoral Fellow
    National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) - New Mexico, USA

  • 2013-2017

    Postdoctoral Fellow
    Arizona State University (Arizona, USA)

  • 2011-2013

    Pancharatnam Postdoctoral Fellow
    Raman Research Institute (Bangalore, India)

Community and Corporate Citizenship

  • 2025-Current

    Associate Editor of Publications of Astronomical Society of Astralia

  • 2021-Current

    Member of the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA)

  • 2017-Current

    Member of the International Union of Radio Sciences (URSI)

  • 2017-Current

    Member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU)

  • 2006-2021

    Member of the American Astronomical Society (AAS)

Professional Areas

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Publications

We have publications by Dr Nithyanandan Thyagarajan