Email: nitya@mit.edu Phone: 617.253.3429 Address: MIT Kavli Center for Astrophysics & Space Research 77 Massachusetts Ave. Bldg. 37-664H Cambridge, MA 02139 USA Related Links: MIT Kavli Center for Astrophysics & Space Research Nitya Kallivayalil's Home Page Current Pappalardo Fellows Biographies Area of Physics: Experimental Astrophysics

Research Interests

Local Group galaxies and galactic dynamics, gravitational lensing, Galactic structure.

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Biographical Sketch

Nitya received her Ph.D. from Harvard in the summer of 2007, working with Charles Alcock on the dynamics of satellite galaxies. She won the Fireman Fellowship Prize for her thesis, "The Motions of the Magellanic Clouds and the Nature of Galactic Dark Matter." She is broadly interested in using satellite galaxies in the Local Group to place constraints on the properties of their parent dark halos, and to understand the process of mass build-up in Milky Way-type galaxies. This is a fertile testing ground for dark matter
theories. She has also worked on gravitational microlensing and has lead numerous campaigns aimed at deciphering the nature of the signal seen by microlensing surveys such as MACHO. She considers herself an optical and infrared astronomer and has used the Hubble, Spitzer and Magellan Telescopes in her work. She earned her B.A. in Physics from Mount Holyoke College in 2001 and is actively committed to the advancement of women in science.

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Selected Publications

Forthcoming.

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