#SoCaltech: Nitika Yadlapalli
Nitika Yadlapalli at OVRO. Courtesy of Nitika Yadlapalli
Nitika Yadlapalli (MS ’21) works in the lab of Vikram Ravi, assistant professor of astronomy, studying millimeter-range electromagnetic-spectrum emissions from high-energy astrophysical sources. She has spent a lot of time at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) working first with the Deep Synoptic Array (DSA), and now with the Stokes Polarimetric Radio Interferometer for Time-domain Experiments (SPRITE). Sometimes, she says, the wildlife gets too close for comfort.
“Early in my second year, a couple of us went to OVRO to work on tests for the first DSA dish. Vikram [Ravi] had decided we were going to observe a bright radio source that would pass through the north–south meridian at 10 p.m. The DSA dishes are pointed north and only move in elevation, meaning you can’t spin them to point east or west. And because this was the first dish online, we didn’t have computer control or any computer monitoring of where the dish was pointed. The only way to point it was to strap a digital level onto one of the axes, then flip a switch at the bottom. I was responsible for pressing the button on the data recorder. Vikram was on a ladder, reporting the digital-level reading, like, ‘We’re at 60 degrees! Sixty-five degrees!’
Finally, everyone said, ‘OK, we’re on the source! Hit the button!’ The thing is, it’s the middle of the night, I’m sitting there with this giant glowing box, all these bugs are flying around me, and this really big scorpion runs past my feet. I screamed. Vikram is going, ‘Hit the button!’ And I’m yelling, ‘No, there’s a scorpion!’ I pressed it, but I was scared. Everything worked out though, and I still loved the whole experience enough to keep coming back to OVRO and work on instrumentation for the rest of my thesis.”
#SoCaltech is an occasional series celebrating the diverse individuals who give Caltech its spirit of excellence, ambition, and ingenuity. Know someone we should profile? Send nominations to magazine@caltech.edu.