ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Dartmouth's Rayna Rampalli wins astronomy fellowship
Rampalli joins prestigious 51 Pegasi b Fellowship for exoplanet research program
-
1759953093.png)
Staff Reporter - Fri, 17, Apr 2026
- 01:59 EDT
- 10
Rayna Rampalli / Heising-Simons Foundation
Rayna Rampalli was named a 2026 fellow of the Heising-Simons Foundation’s 51 Pegasi b Fellowship on April 7, joining eight early-career scientists selected for the program.
Rampalli, a graduate student at Dartmouth College, was accepted into the fellowship, which supports postdoctoral research in planetary astronomy. The program provides up to eight fellows annually with three-year grants totaling $468,000 to pursue theoretical, observational, or experimental studies.
Under the fellowship, Rampalli will move to the University of California, San Diego, later this year to begin her research. Her work will examine how the chemical signatures of planet-hosting stars can help map how exoplanets form across the Milky Way galaxy.
ALSO READ: Indian-origin scholar Bhogale named Notre Dame fellow
“Stars are really a connective framework for me to understand how the planets that we study, the planet that we live on, and the solar system that we’re a part of, sit in the greater galactic context,” Rampalli said.
Her research focuses on studying groups of star-planet systems collectively rather than individually. By combining datasets from ground- and space-based stellar surveys, she aims to analyze how the galaxy’s chemical and dynamical evolution influences planet formation.
“We have all these different surveys, we get all these different planet yields, and we sort of interpret them in silos,” she said. “I’m interested in thinking about them cohesively together, and what that means for how we interpret planet evolution across the galaxy.”
As part of the fellowship, Rampalli will build a catalog linking chemical signals of stars to their origins within the galaxy. She will also conduct a targeted search for planets around stars that migrated from the galactic center.
The fellowship, established in 2017 and named after the first known exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star, supports research aimed at advancing understanding of planetary systems and their formation. Fellows may apply for an additional year of funding or receive equivalent support if they secure faculty positions.
Rampalli has also contributed to initiatives supporting women and minorities in science and has been involved in mentorship through Dartmouth’s EE Just Program.
She is scheduled to defend her doctoral thesis April 17 and will graduate this spring with a Ph.D. in physics and astronomy from Dartmouth’s Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies.
Discover more at New India Abroad.
Related
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
E Paper
Video
Comments
Start the conversation
Become a member of New India Abroad to start commenting.
Sign Up Now
Already have an account? Login