Hello! My name is Prajakta Mane. I'm a final-year BS-MS student at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Mohali, India. It is a five-year integrated degree program at the end of which I will receive a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Science, with a major in physics and a minor in astronomy and astrophysics.

I'm currently pursuing my master's thesis at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune, India. In my thesis work, I study gravitational strong lensing of Type Ia supernovae and develop computational tools to detect such systems in the upcoming LSST survey by the Vera Rubin Observatory. I have also taken up a few short research projects during my summer and winter breaks. If interested, I highly recommend reading the details of these projects here. I have tried my best to make it read short and interesting!

My research projects, along with my thesis, have developed my strong interest in the fields of study of transients and observational cosmology. Transients, very roughly, are all the astronomical systems that explode, collide, or merge. More scientifically, this class includes the systems that vary in brightness over relatively short time scales, ranging from fractions of a second to weeks or years. My innate fascination for sources of astronomical scales that I can study evolving in observable time scales is what makes me interested in studying such systems. On the other hand, observational cosmology is where you analyze data from various kinds of sources in the universe we reside in and try to make cosmological implications from it. Cosmological implications include better constraints to answer broader scale questions like, 'What did our Universe originate from?', 'What is the fate of our Universe?', 'How fast is our Universe evolving?', and so on. Recent breakthroughs in this field include recent famous results of using gravitational lensing tools to determine the distribution and statistical properties of dark matter and the study of supernova Type Ia to propose that the universe, in fact, is expanding at an accelerating rate and to constrain the contribution of dark energy.

Apart from academics, I am naturally a very curious, outgoing, and enthusiastic person who likes to explore different things meticulously. This nature manifests that I possess hobbies that I am very passionate about! Currently, bird-watching and crocheting take up a considerable amount of my time apart from academics. Another hobby, that has stayed with me all the way from my childhood, is reading. Currently, I find great joy in reading witty books with good wordplay and elaborate storylines. One perfect example of such books, that I am currently very much in love with, is The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I also relish mystery thrillers and science fiction. I am also always on the lookout for interesting and obscure astronomy-related trivia and love to make elaborate quiz questions to challenge fellow quiz enthusiasts! You can find more about my other hobbies here!