Pratyasha Gitika - PhD student

​During my Master’s thesis, I got introduced to modelling compact objects such as neutron stars and then extended my work to estimate gravitational wave amplitudes from isolated spinning neutron stars and millisecond pulsars. For this project, I worked on pulsar data from the Australia Telescope National Facility database. The idea of such dense exotic stars was quite fascinating, and I wanted to explore the subject further. After a quick chat with my current supervisors, I was convinced that if I want to continue studying pulsars and gravitational waves, then Ozgrav is the place to be.
 
Currently, I’m a newly appointed PhD student with Ozgrav at the Centre for Astrophysics and supercomputing, Swinburne University. For my PhD, I’ll observe and analyse pulsar data from one of the most powerful and sensitive radio telescopes in the southern hemisphere i.e. MeerKAT. We will explore the galaxy's pulsars for studies of relativistic gravity, binary evolution and probe the millisecond pulsars that inhabit the globular clusters. 
 
Travelling from India to Australia to commence my PhD has been a big challenge. Even though I got my offer letter in 2019, the international travel ban put a halt to the process all along. I am fortunate to be one of the few people who could travel to Australia during the pandemic and grateful to everyone who helped me along the way. In the little amount of time I have spent here, I have met and interacted with some amazing people who have made moving to a whole new hemisphere and continent much easier. The beautiful city of Melbourne is the icing on the cake and the weather here never fails to surprise me. 
 
In my spare time, I enjoy acrylic painting and teaching myself a chord or two on the keyboard. The flora and fauna in Australia is quite different from my home country and I love walking around and exploring those.
 

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