Personal Story - Dr Aditi Vijayan
Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue51 1–31 May 2024
I study outflows generated from supernova feedback in star-forming galaxies. I use HD and MHD simulations to understand the features of the outflowing gas. During my PhD, I looked at X-ray and radio signatures of these outflows. In the two years as a Post-Doc at ANU, I focussed on the problem of metal loading in the outflows. I ran simulations of a patch of the Milky Way disc using the GPU-based code, Quokka. In our latest paper, which originally had a creative (read humorously long) title, we quantified metal loading in the SN-generated outflows. We were able to show how the degree to which the outflowing gas is loaded depends on how metal-poor/rich the host galaxy is.
Looking back, I feel Universe was always nudging me towards astronomy. During my Masters, I had a couple of hard-core theory courses which were quite intense, esoteric, and not entirely enjoyable. I did my project in a materials lab, and I quickly realised I was working way beyond my core competences. When I started looking for PhD positions, computational astronomy had the correct balance of being physics-y enough but without the intensity of pure theory. I loved coding and the promise of not being in a lab sealed the deal for me. The most incredible thing about astronomy is how simple laws of mass, momentum, and energy conservation can predict the behaviour of massive systems such as galaxies and clusters. Over the years, I have come to appreciate the sheer number of things we know about the Universe given its size and how little of it we can actually observe!
Though astronomy is my true first love, I have toyed with the idea of a non-academic life. In 2021, my dear friend, Miao, and I were in a weird transition zone where we weren't jobless but couldn't start our respective positions because of Covid. During one of our catch-up/morale-boosting sessions, we had an epiphany of opening an astro-themed cafe in picturesque rural France. The menu was to boast of items like "Hubble Ice Tea", "Southern Crossaints" and "Ber-LINERs". I think I will circle back to this at some point in time.
My bakery-themed puns and an unusual inclination for bad jokes arise from a writing streak I can’t seem to shake off. I have always been compulsive writer. I've kept a blog for more than a decade now on which I share my rants about bad books, some flash fiction, and perhaps some rhymes. In Canberra, I am a part of a speculative fiction writing group which has been a superb creative outlet for me.
Salman Rushdie writes in The Moor’s Last Sigh, “The sense of being amongst kindred spirits, among people-like-me, that is the defining quality of home.” I have been extremely fortunate in finding such kindred spirits at RSAA, on both the sides of the road. I think of Canberra as home even though it is quite unlike any place I’ve ever lived before.
Image: Aditi wearing her winning 2023 Shirty Science design t-shirt.
