Pranav Nagarajan

Welcome to my academic homepage! I’m a 3rd year Ph.D. student in Astrophysics at the California Institute of Technology working with Professor Kareem El-Badry. My research focuses on the discovery and characterization of stellar-mass black holes and neutron stars that are orbited by luminous companions. I combine photometric, spectroscopic, and astrometric data from large-scale surveys and targeted follow-up observations with predictions from theoretical models to understand how these objects form and evolve.

I have lived in California my entire life. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 2022 with B.A. degrees in astrophysics, physics, and data science. Outside of astronomy, I am an avid chess player, and hold the National Master title awarded by the United States Chess Federation. I also enjoy memes.