Urmila Chadayammuri
Chandra X-Ray Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Research Focus
Research Interests
About Urmila
I’m from Kerala, India, and grew up in Moscow, Russia. Today, I am a computational cosmologist at the Chandra X-ray Center within the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. This means that I run and analyse simulations of the evolution of large scale structure in the Universe, testing different ideas for the behaviour of supermassive black holes and dark matter, and compare these to observations. I want to extract as much information as possible about dark matter and dark energy by combining maps of the Universe in different wavelengths, for which simulations are a very powerful tool. I love teaching students and the public, making art and music, dancing, and supporting social justice and decolonisation movements everywhere.
Honors
2019 - Fidelity Data Visualisation Award at MIT Reality Virtually Hackathon
2018-2021 - Chandra X-Ray Center Pre-Doctoral Fellowship
2017 - Henry A Smith Fellowship in Astronomy, Yale University
2016 - Bunker Fellowship, Yale University
2013 - Smiley Award for Excellence in Astronomy, Brown University
2012 - Undergraduate Teaching and Research Assistantship, Brown University
2011 - Brown International Scholars Program Fellow
2009-2013 - Davis United World Scholars Fellowship
2009-2013 - Harrison Family Presidential Scholarship
Education
Postdoc
Chandra X-ray Center, 06/2021 - 06/2024
Ph.D.
Astronomy, Yale University, 05/2021
Master's
Astronomy, Yale University, 05/2017
Bachelor's
Physics, Brown University, 05/2013
