I completed my Bachelors and Masters in my home city - Bangalore, India under the INSPIRE Scholarship. After finishing M.Sc., (Physics), I did an internship at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) during which I got interested in the interdisciplinary field of Astrochemistry. To take this interest forward, I joined the group in September 2017 as an early stage researcher under the Marie-Sklodowska Curie ITN, funded under Horizon 2020 – ‘’EUROPAH’’. My research work is supervised by Liv Hornekær and co-supervised by Andrew Cassidy. When I am not in the lab, I am either cooking, reading or exploring Aarhus by foot. You can read about my adventures on my blog www.avial7.wordpress.com.

I combine my passion for astronomy with experimental surface science techniques like Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy to study and understand the catalytic properties of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the interstellar medium. My research work involves working with ultra-high vacuum, learning surface science techniques, studying surface reactions, understanding the chemical complexity of the interstellar medium and working closely with theorists and observational astronomers.

My publications can be found here.