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Priya Natarajan | |
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![]() Natarajan at KITP, Santa Barbara | |
Born | 1969 (age 55–56) [1] Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India |
Alma mater | MIT, University of Cambridge, Trinity College, Institute of Astronomy |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Cosmology, theoretical astrophysics |
Institutions | Yale University (professor) |
Priyamvada (Priya) Natarajan is a theoretical astrophysicist and professor in the departments of astronomy and physics at Yale University. [2] She is noted for her work in mapping dark matter and dark energy, particularly in gravitational lensing and in models describing the assembly and accretion histories of supermassive black holes. [3] She authored the book Mapping the Heavens: The Radical Scientific Ideas That Reveal the Cosmos. [4] She has been featured on shows such as Black Hole Apocalypse on PBS, showcasing her work and background. [5]
Priya Natarajan was born in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu in India to academic parents. [6] She grew up in New Delhi, where she would visit Nehru Planetarium Delhi and had a great interest in celestial and terrestrial maps as a kid. [5]
Natarajan has undergraduate degrees in physics and mathematics from M.I.T (1986-1991). [7] She was awarded a Master of Science from the Program in Science, Technology & Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (1991-1994). [7] She did her graduate work in theoretical astrophysics at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, England, receiving a Ph.D. degree in 1998. [2] There she was a member of Trinity College and was elected to a Title A Research Fellowship that she held from 1997 to 2003. [7] Prior to coming to Yale, she was a visiting postdoctoral fellow at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics in Toronto, Canada. [7]
Natarajan has done extensive work in the following fields:
Natarajan was awarded the Emeline Conland Bigelow Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute of Harvard University in 2008. [7] In 2009, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. [7] Natarajan was also the 2009 recipient of the award for academic achievement from the Global Organization for the People of Indian Origin (GOPIO). [7] In 2010, she was the recipient of the India Abroad Foundation's "Face of the Future" Award. [7] Natarajan was elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2008, the Explorers Club in 2010, and the American Physical Society in 2011. [7] She was awarded a JILA (Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics) Fellowship in 2010 at University of Boulder. [7] In 2011 she was awarded an India Empire NRI award for Achievement in the Sciences in New Delhi, India. [7] She was the Caroline Herschel Distinguished Visitor at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore for 2011–2012. [7] In addition to her current appointments at Yale and Harvard, she also holds the Sophie and Tycho Brahe Professorship, Dark Cosmology Center, Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark and was recently elected to an honorary professorship for life at the University of Delhi. [9]
She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2023. [10] She was named a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2024, for "seminal contributions to our understanding of the nature of dark matter and black hole physics, and for the development of a brand-new framework that enables mapping the detailed distribution of dark matter on small scales within galaxy clusters using gravitational lensing". [11]
Natarajan was named by Time as one of its hundred most influential people in 2024. [12]