Caltech’s Viraj Karambelkar Named 2025 NASA Hubble Fellow

India-West News Desk

PASADENA, CA – Viraj Karambelkar, a PhD candidate at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), has been selected as a 2025 fellow in the esteemed NASA Hubble Fellowship Program. Out of over 650 applicants this year, Karambelkar is one of just 24 early-career astrophysicists honored with the fellowship, which will support his work on the origins and evolution of the universe.

Originally from Pune, Karambelkar completed his degree in engineering physics and mathematics at IIT Bombay in 2019 before pursuing his PhD at Caltech under the mentorship of Professor Mansi Kasliwal. His research focuses on time-domain and multi-messenger astronomy, exploring topics such as stellar mergers, gravitational waves, and cosmic explosions.

Karambelkar’s work utilizes advanced optical and infrared surveys to track transient cosmic events. He has made significant contributions to the development of data-processing tools for the Wide-Field Infrared Transient Explorer (WFIRST) and has led observation programs using both the James Webb and Hubble Space Telescopes.

As a Hubble Fellow, Karambelkar will expand his research with upcoming astronomical surveys, including the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, NASA’s SPHEREx mission, and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. His studies aim to further our understanding of binary star evolution, gravitational wave sources, and cosmic dust formation.

Through his groundbreaking research into stellar mergers and other cosmic phenomena, Karambelkar’s work promises to enhance future space missions, improve gravitational wave detection, and refine models of star evolution, bringing us closer to unraveling the mysteries of the universe.