Shrinivas Kulkarni

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Shrinivas Kulkarni is a professor of astrophysics and planetary science at Caltech. He is also on the Space Interferometry Mission science team and director of Caltech's optical observatories, including Palomar and Keck.

Kulkarni is the brother of Sudha Murty, and husband of former Caltech biochemist Hiromi Komiya.

[edit] Background

Kulkarni was born in the small town of Kurundwad in southern Maharashtra and had his early education in Hubli, Karnataka. He obtained a Master's in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, and left for the United States for a doctorate in astronomy. He obtained his PhD at the University of California, Berkleyin 1983, and later moved on to become a professor at Caltech. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, London, in late 2001, one of only ten living Indian born scientists to do so. He has also received the Alan T. Waterman award, given by the National Science Foundation every year to "the most accomplished scientist/doctor/engineer, under the age of 35 years, working in any field in the U.S".

[edit] Notable research

Kulkarni is known for shifting between different fields within astronomy. He has worked on pulsars, gamma-ray bursts, and was a member of the teams that discovered both the first known brown dwarf and the first millisecond pulsar.

[edit] External links

• Personal webpage
• An accomplished observer Frontline - Oct. 27 - Nov. 09, 2001
• A Star Called Kulkarni Rediff - August 19, 2003
• Nature Podcast 24 May 2007 - Nature
• Kulkarni Inducted Into The Royal Society