Sanika Samir Khadkikar

I’m Sanika (pronounced Saa-nee-kah) from Mulund, a small suburb in Mumbai, India. I am a third-year graduate student working with Prof. Bangalore Sathyaprakash at the PAX group. I completed an integrated bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering and a master’s in Physics from BITS Pilani in India. During that time, I developed a deep fascination with neutron stars and decided to pursue a PhD at Penn State to study them more closely. At Penn State, I’m exploring the many facets of neutron stars. From using gravitational waves to infer their properties in binary mergers to studying how exotic forms of matter might exist inside them, I approach neutron stars from various angles. My goal is to incrementally deepen our understanding of their equation of state.

If you’re curious to find out more about my research, feel free to check out my website linked in the sidebar.