#SoCaltech: Vikram Ravi

“In a sense, I’ve been surrounded by astronomy for as long as I can remember because my parents were both astronomers. As a child, visiting campuses and telescope sites with them was brilliant because there was more room to explore and play.

From the age of 10 to 16, we lived in a house at the Australia Telescope Compact Array, near the town of Narrabri in outback Australia. I remember being followed by kangaroos at night, printing my school assignments in the observing room, instinctively recognizing the cryostat failure alarm, hearing snakes in the roof, hoping not to hit the telescopes with my model rockets, riding my bike under telescopes ranging from bits of chicken wire to gleaming behemoths. These things were routine.

Although on going to university I had no intention of becoming an astronomer, the sense I had of feeling at home at remote telescope sites, combined with the remarkable people I’d met in the astronomy community, certainly stayed with me and played a large part in what I do today.”

Vikram Ravi is an assistant professor of astronomy at Caltech. Read more about his research here. 

#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.