Vikram Ravi

Vikram Ravi is an Assistant Professor of Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), affiliated with the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy. He leads the astronomy department's research on relativistic astrophysical phenomena and instrumental development. His academic journey includes a B.S. from the Australian National University (2009) and a Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne (2014), followed by postdoctoral roles at Caltech and Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

His research focuses on neutron stars, black holes, fast radio bursts (FRBs), and tidal disruption events (TDEs). He pioneered the DSA-2000 radio telescope project, aiming to revolutionize transient astronomy. Key contributions include gravitational wave predictions from supermassive black hole binaries and FRB-based studies of galaxy halos and dark matter.

Ravi's honors include the Charlene Heisler Prize and Stefano Braccini Prize for his Ph.D. work on pulsar-timing constraints on gravitational waves. He actively mentors students and postdocs in instrumentation, computational astrophysics, and observational campaigns.

His groups at Caltech and Owens Valley Radio Observatory develop cutting-edge tools like the Deep Synoptic Array (DSA) telescopes, enabling breakthroughs in FRB localization, TDE surveys, and cosmic baryon mapping. Future projects include the DSA-2000's fast-time-domain surveys and dark matter searches.