Caltech has appointed Indian-American Prof. Mansi Manoj Kasliwal as the new Director of its historic Palomar Observatory, marking the first time a woman will lead the facility.
Born in Indore, India, Kasliwal moved to the United States at age 15 and completed her undergraduate studies in applied and engineering physics at Cornell University.
A Professor of Astronomy at Caltech, Kasliwal is a globally recognised leader in time-domain and multi-messenger astrophysics. Her research focuses on “cosmic fireworks” — powerful stellar explosions and transients that reveal how stars live, die, and create the elements around us.
Kasliwal has played a central role in developing Palomar’s cutting-edge discovery tools, including the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), the infrared survey instruments Palomar Gattini-IR (PGIR) and WINTER, and the recently commissioned Next Generation Palomar Spectrograph (NGPS). Internationally, she leads the GROWTH initiative, a network of observatories that tracks fast-changing cosmic events around the clock.
Her scientific achievements include the prestigious Breakthrough Prize in Physics in 2022, over 440 refereed publications, and an h-index of 100. She has also spearheaded major campaigns following up on gravitational wave events, establishing herself as a prominent voice in modern astrophysics.
Kasliwal has deep ties to Palomar, having earned her Ph.D. at Caltech and helped design the Palomar Transient Factory. As Director, she plans to harness the Observatory’s unique capabilities to explore the dynamic universe.
The Zwicky Transient Facility, a public-private partnership funded equally by the US National Science Foundation and an international consortium, scans the entire Northern sky every two days. Its wide-field surveys enable astronomers to study phenomena ranging from near-Earth asteroids to distant superluminous supernovae.
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