Gautham Narayan







AI, Big Data, Cosmology

Experience

 
 
 
 
 
September 2024 – Present
Chicago / Urbana, IL, USA

Deputy Director for Astrophysics

NSF-Simons SkAI Institute

  • Developing foundation AI models for time-domain survey astrophysics
  • Coordinating astrophysics research across the SkAI Institute
 
 
 
 
 
August 2024 – Present
Urbana, IL, USA

Associate Professor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research Activities:

  • Spokesperson, LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC), Oct. 2025–present
  • Analysis Coordinator, LSST DESC (2023–2025); Deputy Analysis Coordinator (2021–2023); Supernova Working Group Convener (2019–2021)
  • The Young Supernova Experiment (YSE) — leading data releases and cosmology analyses
  • BayeSN: Bayesian hierarchical models for Type Ia supernova cosmology
  • ANTARES and RESSPECT: real-time alert brokers and active learning for LSST
  • Faint DA white dwarf spectrophotometric standards for Rubin/LSST and Roman
 
 
 
 
 
August 2020 – Present
Urbana, IL, USA

Deputy Director

Center for Astrophysical Surveys (CAPS), UIUC/NCSA

 
 
 
 
 
August 2019 – August 2024
Urbana, IL, USA

Assistant Professor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

 
 
 
 
 
June 2017 – August 2019
Baltimore, MD

Lasker Data Science Fellow

Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

Research Activities:

  • Rapid response followup of supernovae with KEGS
  • Neural networks to characterize multi-messenger alert streams
  • Bayesian models for cosmological samples of type Ia supernovae
 
 
 
 
 
June 2013 – June 2017
Tucson, AZ

Postdoctoral Fellow

National Optical Astronomy Observatory (formerly NOAO, now NOIRLab)

Research Activities:

  • Developing the ANTARES alert broker
  • Establishing a network of faint spectrophotometric standards

Research

Click for more

Publications on ADS Google Scholar Scopus Full Bibliography in CV
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All Deep Learning Time-domain Astrostats Wide-field Surveys

SELDON and the next generation of AI for the LSST alert stream
SELDON applied to real data from the Young Supernova Experiment

Decoding progenitor systems, explosion mechanisms, and circumstellar environments from early-time and multi-wavelength observations of supernovae with YSE (Co-PI with Prof. Ryan Foley, UCSC)
Spectra and light curves of Type Ia supernovae from the Young Supernova Experiment

A network of spectrophotometric standards for JWST, Rubin/LSST, and Roman Space Telescope, calibrated to sub-percent precision and used in the Dovekie DES 5yr cosmology reanalysis
Spectrophotometric standard star network for calibration of JWST, Rubin/LSST, and Roman Space Telescope

Photometric and lensed SN Ia cosmology: from fully photometric surveys to time-delay cosmography with BayeSN
Dark energy equation of state constraints from Type Ia supernova cosmology

Group

I am fortunate to collaborate with an excellent team of researchers — the Champaign Supernova Team.

Postdoctoral Researchers

 
 
 
 
 
Jason Hinkle
Aug. 2025–present

Jason Hinkle [ADS]

UIUC & NSF-Simons SkAI Institute — Hubble Fellow (2025)

  • Hubble Fellow based at NSF-Simons SkAI Institute and CIERA, working on Tidal Disruption Events with Rubin and YSE
  • Working with Prof. Decker French, Prof. Adam Miller (NU) and graduate student Athena Engholm
 
 
 
 
 
Jack O'Brien
Aug. 2024–present

Jack O'Brien [ADS]

UIUC

  • Developing SELDON Foundation AI model for supernova property inference, anomaly detection, and forecasting as part of the NSF-Simons SkAI Institute
  • Modeling supernovae photometry and spectroscopy to understand physical properties and progenitor systems
  • Leading YSE analysis of the type Iax supernova sample
 
 
 
 
 
Ayan Mitra
Nov. 2023–present

Ayan Mitra [ADS]

UIUC — Illinois Survey Science Postdoctoral Fellow & LSST DESC Pipeline Scientist

  • SNe Ia cosmology analysis for the Young Supernova Experiment (YSE) and LSST DESC
  • Leading analysis of photometrically classified SNe Ia with photometric redshifts

Graduate Students

 
 
 
 
 
Athena Engholm
Aug. 2025–present

Athena Engholm [ADS]

UIUC Astronomy — Co-adviser

  • Working with Hubble Fellow Dr. Jason Hinkle, Prof. Decker French, and Narayan on Tidal Disruption Events with Rubin and YSE
 
 
 
 
 
Henna Abunemeh
Aug. 2024–present

Henna Abunemeh [ADS]

UIUC Astronomy

  • Collaborating with Dr. Daniel Muthukrishna, Dr. Alex Gagliano, and Dr. Yunyi Shen to develop encoder methods for the SELDON foundation model at SkAI Institute
  • YSE spectroscopic sample, mapping SN diversity and particularly spectroscopic twin supernovae
  • Previous REU student in the UIUC IDEAS program with Narayan, Summer 2023
 
 
 
 
 
Padmavathi Venkatraman
Aug. 2024–present

Padmavathi Venkatraman [ADS]

UIUC Astronomy — Co-adviser

  • Co-advising with Prof. Yue Shen (UIUC) on strong lens detection in JWST NEXUS Program
  • Time-delay cosmology with strongly lensed quasars in Rubin/LSST with Phil Marshall (SLAC)
  • Synthetic source injection of lensed quasars into Rubin Data Preview 1 to measure efficiency
 
 
 
 
 
Aadya Agrawal
Aug. 2023–present

Aadya Agrawal [ADS]

UIUC Astronomy

  • Lead author on lens model consistency paper for SN Hope (Agrawal et al. ’26, submitted); co-author on SN Hope H0 analysis (Pierel et al. ’24)
  • Working with Dr. Justin Pierel (STScI) on strongly lensed SNe Ia
  • Ground+space-based analysis of HST SIRAH program supernovae
 
 
 
 
 
Tanner Murphey
Aug. 2023–present

Tanner Murphey [ADS]

UIUC Astronomy

  • Leading YSE Data Release 2; YSE DECam data reduction, mentoring undergrads Julia Henricks and Aditya Arunachalam
  • Leading analysis of Rubin Data Preview 1 SNe with DECam data
 
 
 
 
 
Haille Perkins
2023–present

Haille Perkins [ADS]

UIUC Astronomy

  • Led paper on detectability of KNe without GW triggers with Rubin and UVEX (Perkins et al. ’26, submitted)
  • Led paper with Prof. Brian Fields on determining lethality of nearby KNe; physical modeling of transients with TARDIS; jointly supervised with Prof. Brian Fields
  • DOE SCGSR 2026 at LBNL; Google Summer of Code 2025; TARDIS Summer School 2025
  • Mentoring Maximillian Riccardi (Bronx Science Academy)
 
 
 
 
 
Amanda Wasserman
2021–present

Amanda Wasserman [ADS]

UIUC Astronomy

  • Leading development of SASSAFRAS package to simulate multi-modal transient datasets for the SELDON foundation model effort at SkAI Institute
  • RESSPECT active learning and real-time follow-up for LSST; LSST DESC & commissioning team member; YSE and DECAT teams
  • DOE SCGSR Award (LBNL, Spring 2024); LSST Wasabi (2022); LSST LINCC Incubator (2024); Fiddler Innovation Award (2025)

Undergraduate Students

 
 
 
 
 
Nov. 2025–present

Aditya Arunachalam

UIUC Astrophysics

  • Working with graduate student Tanner Murphey on real-time YSE DECam reductions
  • Working with graduate student Amanda Wasserman on characterizing performance of DASH spectroscopic classification algorithm
 
 
 
 
 
Nov. 2025–present

Julia Henricks

UIUC Astrophysics

  • Working with graduate student Tanner Murphey on YSE DECam analysis
 
 
 
 
 
Ray Liang
Nov. 2024–present

Ray Liang

UIUC Astrophysics

  • Working with graduate student Aadya Agrawal on fast photometric redshift methods for transients
 
 
 
 
 
Nov. 2024–present

Tanmay Raswant

UIUC Astrophysics & Computer Science

  • Working with graduate student Aadya Agrawal on HST SIRAH supernovae analysis
 
 
 
 
 
Oct. 2024–present

Michael James Lukaszyk

UIUC Astronomy

  • Working with postdoc Dr. Jack O’Brien on modeling type IIP supernovae with TARDIS
  • Applying TARDIS to well-observed type IIP SNe from Young Supernovae Experiment
 
 
 
 
 
Oct. 2024–present

Gauri Nair

UIUC Physics & Computer Science

  • Working with graduate student Tanner Murphey on YSE Data Release 2
  • Reducing YSE DECam data with photpipe to find young supernovae
  • Adapting ZTF BRAAI real/bogus classifier to DECam
 
 
 
 
 
Arjun Chainani
Aug. 2024–present

Arjun Chainani

UIUC Electrical & Computer Engineering — NCSA SPIN Intern

  • Working with graduate students Amanda Wasserman and Haille Perkins on RESSPECT framework for LSST DESC as NCSA SPIN Intern
  • Modified RESSPECT to incorporate new ORACLE hierarchical classifier; testing as rapid spectroscopic follow-up framework for anomalous transients
  • Fiddler Innovation Award (2025, with Wasserman)

Alumni

Postdoctoral Researchers

Graduate Students

  • Patrick Aleo (UIUC, 2020–2024) — Ph.D. March 2024; Illinois Survey Science Fellow (2020, 2021), Chu Award 2023; now at US National Security Campus, Kansas City
  • Alex Gagliano (UIUC, 2019–2023) — Ph.D. April 2023; ASA Astrophysics Paper of the Year 2021, Simons Fellowship CCA (2021), NSF GRF (2020); NSF IAIFI Fellow, MIT/Harvard
  • Daniel Muthukrishna (U. Cambridge, 2017–2021; primary adviser: Prof. Kaisey Mandel) — Scientist, Harvard/CfA (Fall 2025–present); previously Staff Scientist, MIT (working on TESS with Prof. George Ricker, 2021–2025)

Undergraduate Students

  • Mai Li (UIUC Astro, 2023–2024) — DA white dwarf spectrophotometric modeling; Summer REU at Cornell on gravitational waves
  • Ved Shah (UIUC CS, 2021–2024) — Dept. Wyatt Award; led YSE ELAsTiCC real-time classifier and kilonova rate analysis; Ph.D. in Astronomy, Northwestern (Fall 2024)
  • Jason Vazquez (UIUC CS+Astro, 2021–2024) — Ph.D. in Physics, UW Milwaukee (Fall 2024)
  • Qifeng Cheng (UIUC Astro, 2021–2023) — Dept. Wyatt Award; dwarf nova and changing-look AGN model; Ph.D. in Astronomy, Duke (Fall 2023)
  • Sammy Sharief (UIUC CS+Astro, 2021–2023) — YSE DECam pipeline; M.S. Computer Science, U. Montréal (2023); Ph.D., Université Paris Cité (2025)
  • Filip Matasic (UIUC CS+Astro, 2021–2022) — Senior honors thesis; YSE first data release; now working in information security
  • Holly Wingren (UIUC Astro, 2024) — Layla Ryan Memorial Award, UIUC Astronomy; starting Masters in Education
  • Athish Thiruvengadam (UIUC CS+Astro, 2024)
  • Kunal Bhatia (UIUC Astro, 2021) — M.S. Physics, Universität Heidelberg, Astronomisches Rechen-Institut (Gravitational Lensing Group)
  • Andrew Engel (UIUC Physics, 2019–2020) — AI for photometric redshifts; Sr. data scientist at PNNL; Ph.D., Ohio State (Dean’s Fellow, Fall 2024)
  • Daniel Alcantara (Bard College, 2016–2019) — Microlensing classifier; algorithm deployed with MARS broker on ZTF
  • Tayeb Zaidi (Macalester College, 2016–2017) — Time-series classification; now Ph.D. in Biophysics, Northwestern University

Please see my CV for a full list of advisees and students for whom I have served on a preliminary examination or thesis committee.

Teaching

Courses taught at UIUC:

  • ASTR 496, Foundations of Data Science in Astronomy, Fall 2025
  • ASTR 414, Astronomical Techniques, Fall 2024
  • ASTR 350, The Big Bang, Black Holes, and the End of the Universe, Fall 2023
  • ASTR 310, Computing in Astronomy, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022
  • ASTR 210, Introduction to Astrophysics, Fall 2020
  • ASTR 596, Fundamentals of Data Science, Spring 2020, Spring 2023

External instruction:

  • ZTF Summer School, Pasadena, Aug. 2018
  • LSST Data Science Fellowship Program, Session 5, Baltimore, Jan. 2018
  • LSST Data Science Fellowship Program, Session 3, Tucson, Apr. 2017
  • NOAO Teen Astronomy Cafe, How Stars Die, Tucson, Nov. 2017
  • NOAO Big Data Workshop for Tucson High School Students, Jan. 2017
  • Python Workshop for NOAO/NSO REU Students, Tucson, 2014 & 2015

Recorded Talks

Big Data and Computational Grand Challenges in Multi-Messenger Astrophysics, NCSA
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Big Data and Computational Grand Challenges in Multi-Messenger Astrophysics, NCSA

Synergies in the Exploration of the Extreme Universe, CTAO
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Synergies in the Exploration of the Extreme Universe, CTAO

A Data Lake for Multi-Messenger Astrophysics, SCiMMA October Public Telecon
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A Data Lake for Multi-Messenger Astrophysics, SCiMMA October Public Telecon

The ANTARES Time-Domain Event Broker, ESO-LSST Workshop
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The ANTARES Time-Domain Event Broker, ESO-LSST Workshop

Probing Supernovae Progenitors with Early-time Light Curves from K2
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Probing Supernovae Progenitors with Early-time Light Curves from K2

The Lives and Deaths of Stars, Youth For Astronomy and Engineering
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The Lives and Deaths of Stars, Youth For Astronomy and Engineering

ANTARES - Coping with Streaming Data, LSST Data Science Fellowship Program Session 3
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ANTARES - Coping with Streaming Data, LSST Data Science Fellowship Program Session 3

Bio












CV

Contact

Prof. Gautham Narayan and the Champaign Supernova Team gratefully acknowledge support from:

Funding Agencies

Projects & Surveys

scimma.org
Young Supernova Experiment