Gautham Narayan







AI, Big Data, Cosmology

Experience

 
 
 
 
 
September 2024 – Present
Chicago / Urbana, IL

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

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)
  • 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 2019 – August 2024
Urbana, IL

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 (NOAO)

Research Activities:

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

Research

Click for more

Please see my CV for a list of publications.

*
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)

A network of spectrophotometric standards for LSST and Roman Space Telescope

Measuring w(z) with Type Ia Supernovae

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

Please see my CV for a list of students I have mentored.

Group

Postdoctoral Researchers

 
 
 
 
 
Jack O'Brien
Aug. 2024–present

Jack O'Brien [ADS]

UIUC

  • Developing Foundation AI models 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

 
 
 
 
 
Henna Abunemeh
Aug. 2024–present

Henna Abunemeh [ADS]

UIUC Astronomy

  • YSE spectroscopic sample, particularly spectroscopic twin supernovae
 
 
 
 
 
Padmavathi Venkatraman
Aug. 2024–present

Padmavathi Venkatraman [ADS]

UIUC Astronomy

  • Strongly lensed quasars in Rubin/LSST with Phil Marshall (SLAC)
  • Synthetic source injection of lensed quasars into Rubin Data Preview 2 to measure efficiency
 
 
 
 
 
Aadya Agrawal
Aug. 2023–present

Aadya Agrawal [ADS]

UIUC Astronomy

  • Strongly lensed Type Ia supernovae with Dr. Justin Pierel; lens model consistency with SN Hope
  • JWST data analysis and HST supernovae programs
 
 
 
 
 
Tanner Murphy
Aug. 2023–present

Tanner Murphy [ADS]

UIUC Astronomy

  • YSE DECam data reduction and leading YSE Data Release 2
 
 
 
 
 
Haille Perkins
2023–present

Haille Perkins [ADS]

UIUC Astronomy

  • Afterglow models for kilonova light curves; detectability with Rubin and UVEX
  • Hierarchical inference of kilonova population parameters
  • DOE SCGSR Fellow at LBNL, Spring 2026, inferring the physics of transients
 
 
 
 
 
Amanda Wasserman
2021–present

Amanda Wasserman [ADS]

UIUC

  • RESSPECT active learning and real-time follow-up for LSST; LSST DESC & commissioning team member
  • YSE SNe Ia spectroscopy; PI of Gemini N & S programs
  • DOE SCGSR Award to work on RESSPECT at LBNL, Spring 2024

Undergraduate Students

 
 
 
 
 
Nov. 2024–present

Ray Liang

UIUC Astrophysics

  • Modeling gravitationally lensed SNe; BayeSN time-delay estimation for JWST lensed SN Encore
 
 
 
 
 
Nov. 2024–present

Tanmay Raswant

UIUC Astrophysics & Computer Science

  • Modeling gravitationally lensed SNe; SALT3 time-delay estimation for JWST lensed SN Hope
 
 
 
 
 
Oct. 2024–present

Michael James Lukaszyk

UIUC Astronomy

  • Modeling type IIP supernovae with TARDIS; developing AI emulator for fast inference
 
 
 
 
 
Oct. 2024–present

Gauri Nair

UIUC Physics & Computer Science

  • YSE DECam data reduction with photpipe; flagging supernovae for spectroscopic follow-up
 
 
 
 
 
Aug. 2024–present

Arjun Chainani

UIUC Electrical & Computer Engineering — NCSA SPIN Intern

  • RESSPECT framework for LSST DESC; incorporated ORACLE hierarchical classifier
  • Rapid spectroscopic follow-up of anomalous transients

Alumni

Postdoctoral Researchers

  • Konstantin Malanchev (2020–2023) — LINCC Research Scientist, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Deep Chatterjee (2020–2022) — Alerts & Real-time Inference Lead, MIT LIGO Lab
  • Monika Soraisam (2019–2021) — Research Staff, Gemini Observatory

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) — Staff Scientist, MIT (working on TESS with Prof. George Ricker)

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

Recent Talks

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