Giridharan Sankar

Physics | IISER Pune

Giridharan Sankar

Hello!

I am Giridharan Sankar, a final year BS-MS student in the Department of Physics, at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune. I am interested in astrophysics; in particular, exoplanetary atmospheres and star formation theory. I am currently doing my masters' thesis on protostellar outflows at the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica (ASIAA).

Thanks to this little switch from studying the atmospheres of exoplanets to working on understanding nascent stages of stars, I have come to appreciate the complex interplay between physics, mathematics and chemistry. My current work on modeling outflows and circumstellar disks has built on my previous admiration for climate science from past projects. In a field like astronomy, where we have to rely mostly on observations (as opposed to repeatable experiments, which are fairly common in many fields of science), gaining a deep understanding of the models and their parameter spaces is imperative. It is also the reason why I am excited about this field, as new observations with better instruments have a tendency to chip away at the seemingly well crystallized theories of astronomy, improving our understanding of the cosmos.

On my spare time, I like to read novels and watch films (you can find my letterboxd here), and sometimes even write about them; you might hear me raving about The Banshees of Inisherin or Sorry to Bother You, time-to-time (both of which I highly recommend). I also enjoy listening to various genres of music; some of my favorite artists would be(including, not limited to) Radiohead, The Strokes, MF DOOM, Deftones and Black Country, New Road.