I am a Barr Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology (Caltech) since January 2022. The primary goal of my research is to unravel the role of critical early solar system processes that shape the chemistry of rocky planetesimals and planets. I am chiefly interested in tracing the fate of three critical life-essential volatiles – nitrogen, carbon, and water – during the early solar system processes to better understand the formation of habitable worlds in our solar system and beyond. I use a highly interdisciplinary approach combining high pressure-temperature experiments, isotope geochemistry, and thermo-chemical modelling supported by meteorite data to answer fundamental problems in cosmochemistry, planetary science, and astrophysics.

I received my PhD in Experimental Cosmochemistry/Petrology from the Department of Earth, Environment and Planetary Sciences at Rice University, Houston in December 2021. My PhD research was funded by the Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) grant and a Lodieska Stockbridge Vaughn Fellowship. Before that, I received a dual degree of Bachelor and Master of Science in Applied Geology from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur in 2012. My education at IIT Kharagpur was funded by the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) grant, Department of Science and Technology, India. Before starting my PhD, I taught undergraduate level physical, organic, and inorganic chemistry for engineering and medical school entrance examinations for three years in Patiala (Punjab), India.