Biography

Biography

I have a BSc in chemistry, MSc in astronomy and PhD in astrophysics. I am dedicated to contributing to space science via my interdisciplinary skills in the field of astrochemistry. I am highly motivated to work on some of the open questions crucial to our understanding of the universe, especially those involving the physics and chemistry of the interstellar medium. 

Through my PhD studies I worked on aliphatic hydrocarbons in the interstellar dust (ISD), through the lines of sight of the Galactic Centre by combining observational research and laboratory work. To access cutting edge observational and laboratory facilities, I worked in the physics and the chemistry departments at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and carried out observations on the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT). I also visited the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium (AOP) to work on the observational data. 

Through observational studies, we implemented a new method to measure the amount and distribution of aliphatic carbon within interstellar dust over wide fields of view of our Galaxy. Observations were carried out on the UKIRT using the UIST camera. Then I used the laboratory facilities in USNW for chemical research. We produced reliable ISD analogues (ISDAs) from gas phase precursor molecules by mimicking interstellar/circumstellar conditions in the laboratory. Then I used ISDAs to obtain absorption coefficients and to calculate the amount of the aliphatic hydrocarbon in the ISD. The outcomes from laboratory and observational research [(MNRAS 479, 4336–4344 (2018) and (MNRAS 515, 4201–4216 (2022) respectively] were reported in the press many times. The published article has a high altmetric scores (top 5%) making it an exceptionally newsworthy astronomical paper, bringing an awareness to the public that organic material is prevalent in the interstellar space.

Now I am trying to extend my PhD studies and trying to adapt the spectrophotometric measurement method to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). We aim to map the carbonaceous dust and siliceous dust and ices in the ISM. These maps will separately reveal the column density distribution of the main components of the solids in the ISM.