Surendra Bhattarai (सुरेंद्र भट्टराई)


Type-1 Diabetic Astrophysicist studying White Dwarfs & Extraterrestrial Planets


An avid lover of music and active supporter of people struggling with type 1 diabetes.

About

Hello & Namaste !!!!
I am Surendra. I am a PhD student in the Department of Astronomy at Yale University. Prior to this, I was at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata where I did my integrated BS-MS dual degree with a major in Physics. I completed my Master's thesis project at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore.

Some boring stuffs about me:

  • Place of birth: Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India
  • Highest Degree: Master of Science
  • Email: surendra.bhattarai@yale.edu

I am learning to play the flute and guitar. Music is something I would like to keep learning lifelong. I strongely hope that I will be able to play as much musical instruments as possible.

If you get bored off seeing my academic background and just want to skip to some fun activities I do and the places I have travelled, go to Memories

Publications

h-index: 4 (Google Scholar)


  1. VaTEST III: Validation of 8 Potential Super-Earths from TESS Data, 2024, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia (PASA), 1-22.       DOI

    2. Priyashkumar Mistry, Aniket Prasad, Mousam Maity, Kamlesh Pathak, Sarvesh Gharat, Georgios Lekkas, Surendra Bhattarai, Dhruv Kumar, Jack J Lissauer, Joseph D Twicken, Abderahmane Soubkiou, Francisco J Pozuelos, Jon Jenkins, Keith Horne, Steven Giacalone, Khalid Barkaoui, Mathilde Timmermans, Cristilyn N Watkins, Ramotholo Sefako, Karen A Collins, Avi Shporer, Zouhair Benkhaldoun, Chris Stockdale, Emmanuël Jehin, Felipe Murgas, Martin Paegert, Michael B Lund, Norio Narita, Richard P Schwarz, Robert F Goeke, Thiam-Guan Tan, Yugo Kawai
     
  2. VaTEST II: Statistical Validation of 11 TESS-Detected Exoplanets Orbiting K-type Stars, 2023, The Astronomical Journal, 166, 9.       DOI

    3. Priyashkumar Mistry, Kamlesh Pathak, Aniket Prasad, Georgios Lekkas, Surendra Bhattarai, Sarvesh Gharat, Mousam Maity, Dhruv Kumar, Karen A. Collins, Richard P. Schwarz, Christopher R. Mann, Elise Furlan, Steve B. Howell, David Ciardi, Allyson Bieryla, Elisabeth C. Matthews, Erica Gonzales, Carl Ziegler, Ian Crossfield, Steven Giacalone, Thiam-Guan Tan, Phil Evans, Krzysztof G. Helminiak, Kevin I. Collins, Norio Narita, Akihiko Fukui, Francisco J. Pozuelos, Courtney Dressing, Abderahmane Soubkiou, Zouhair Benkhaldoun, Joshua E. Schlieder, Olga Suarez, Khalid Barkaoui, Enric Palle, Felipe Murgas, Gregor Srdoc, Maria V. Goliguzova, Ivan A. Strakhov, Crystal Gnilka, Kathryn Lester, Colin Littlefield, Nic Scott, Rachel Matson, Michael Gillon, Emmanuel Jehin, Mathilde Timmermans, Mourad Ghachoui, Lyu Abe, Philippe Bendjoya, Tristan Guillot and Amaury H.M.J. Triaud
     
  3. VaTEST I: Validation of Sub-Saturn Exoplanet TOI-181b in Narrow Orbit from its Host Star, 2023, MNRAS, 521, 1066-1078.       DOI

    4. Priyashkumar Mistry, Kamlesh Pathak, Georgios Lekkas, Aniket Prasad, Surendra Bhattarai, Mousam Maity, Charles A. Beichman, David R. Ciardi, Phil Evans, Allyson Bieryla, Jason D. Eastman, Gilbert A. Esquerdo and Jennifer P. Lucero

Conference Proceedings


  1. Simulating super-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs, 2025, Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, In: S. Ghosh & A. R. Rao (Eds.), The Relativistic Universe: From Classical to Quantum, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Recent Developments in Relativistic Astrophysics, Gangtok, December 11–13, 2023, Springer Nature.    arXiv, Springer Nature

    2. Zenia Zuraiq, Achal Kumar, Alexander J. Hackett, Surendra Bhattarai, Christopher A. Tout, Banibrata Mukhopadhyay

CV

Click here

Education

PhD in Astronomy & Astrophysics

2024 - Present

Department of Astronomy, Yale University, CT, USA

MS thesis project

2023 - 2024

Department of Physical Sciences, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, India

BS-MS; Major in Physics

2019 - 2024

Department of Physical Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata, India

Skills

Programming Skills:

Languages: Python (marvin, pycbc, bilby, lightkurve, triceratops, astropy, matplotlib, numpy, pandas), C, Fortran, MATLAB, shell scripting

Tools/Softwares: High Performance Computing (HPC), MESA, STARS, Astrometrica, LATEX, Gnuplot, ORIGIN, Stellarium, VizieR, sdss-marvin

Python 95%
HTML 85%
Fortran 80%
MESA80%
C75%
MATLAB 75%

Awards

  • Boris Garfinkel Prize Fellowship in Astronomy   ($2,500)       2024

  • Discovered 1 main-belt asteroid: 2021 LH10, in the International Asteroid Search Campaign.       Link

  • INSPIRE-DST Fellowship (₹400,000) for being among top 1% students in India in Higher Secondary.

  • Anundoram Borooah Award for securing excellent scores in Secondary education

    • Services

  • Space Policy Advocate - Yale STEM Hill Day 2025 at Capitol Hill, Washington, DC.

  • Teaching Assistant for ASTR 220 - Galaxies and Cosmology course at Yale University.       Spring 2025

  • Teaching Assistant for ASTR 155 - Introduction to Astronomical Observing course at Yale University.       Fall 2024

  • LOC member & volunteer at the 42nd meeting of the Astronomical Society of India (ASI) 2024 at IISc Bangalore.

  • Teaching Assistant for PH3205 - Computational Physics course at IISER Kolkata.       Spring 2023

  • Science outreach volunteer at National Space Science Exhibition 2022 at Science City, Kolkata.

  • Subject matter expert in "Other Maths" subject at Chegg.com.

    • Memories

    Here one can find me traveling to various beautiful places around the world. And ofcourse, some clicks with cool and amazing people/friends that were part of my journey. Hover over and click on the eye symbol on each image to see its description.

    • All
    • Capitol Hill, DC
    • IISc Bangalore
    • IUCAA Pune
    • IISER Kolkata
    • Sikkim
    • Tamil Nadu

    Contact

    Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. I will be more than happy to answer your queries. I can be contacted via mail, or through other social media platforms.

    Location:

    Department of Astronomy, Klein Tower, Yale University, Connecticut, USA

    Call:

    +91 00000 00000

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