Indian Priyamvada Natarajan listed in Time’s Most Influential – Who is she?

Priyamvada Natarajan, an astrophysicist, was recently recognized for her global influence. As a professor at Yale University, she chairs the Astronomy department and leads the Women Faculty Forum. Additionally, she directs the Franke Program in Science and the Humanities at Yale.

Natarajan’s academic journey began at Delhi Public School in Delhi, followed by undergraduate studies in Physics and Mathematics at MIT. She further pursued studies in History and Philosophy of Science at MIT and completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on understanding the interactions of black holes with their host galaxies and the broader cosmos through simulations and models.

In 2022, she was honored with the Liberty Science Center’s Genius Award and has received fellowships from prestigious institutions such as the APS, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Natarajan is also an accomplished author, known for her book “Mapping the Heavens: The Radical Scientific Ideas that Reveal the Cosmos.”