Welcome!

I am a NASA Hubble Fellow and Pappalardo Fellow at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. I study the first stars and galaxies that formed after the Big Bang with a “near-and-far” approach. I am among the first users of the JWST observatory via six PI and several co-I programs. These programs are revealing how the first galaxies emerged to light up the Universe, ionize the intergalactic oceans of hydrogen, and synthesize the elements that would one day seed life on Earth. Simultaneously, I work on unearthing some of the first galaxies that lie buried within our own Milky Way (“Galactic Archaeology”). I search for these ancient immigrant systems using the Gaia satellite and large ground-based surveys (e.g., the H3 Survey, the 100k Survey).

Before MIT, I spent five happy years at Harvard where I received my PhD in Astronomy, advised by Prof. Charlie Conroy, in May 2022. I grew up in Hyderabad, India (for a recent review, see). In a Bollywood-esque plot twist, at age 18 I dropped out of engineering school, bought my first-ever plane ticket, and joined the founding class of 150 students at Yale-NUS College, Singapore (“Asia’s first liberal arts college”). Amidst my many Yale-NUS adventures, I discovered the joys of Astronomy working with Prof. Charles Bailyn, and as an exchange student with Dr. Iva Momcheva and Prof. Pascal Oesch in the van Dokkum group at Yale.

I am happy to hear from students in the Cambridge/Boston area seeking research projects, and can arrange funding for stipends (e.g., through the UROP program for MIT undergrads).

My name is pronounced Rohan (rho, like the Greek letter + hon, like short for “honey”) Naidu (Nye, like Bill Nye the Science Guy + Doo, like Scooby-Doo).