Shrinivas Kulkarni: 2024 Shaw Prize in Astronomy winner talks about his fascination with variable and transient objects

Physics World Weekly Podcast

This episode features an in-depth conversation with Shrinivas Kulkarni, who won the 2024 Shaw Prize in Astronomy “for his ground-breaking discoveries about millisecond pulsars, gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, and other variable or transient astronomical objects”. Based at Caltech in the US, he is also cited for his “leadership of the Palomar Transient Factory and its successor, the Zwicky Transient Facility, which have revolutionized our understanding of the time-variable optical sky”.

Kulkarni talks about his fascination with astronomical objects that change over time and he reveals the principles that have guided his varied and successful career. He also offers advice to students and early-career researchers about how to thrive in astronomy.

This podcast also features an interview with Scott Tremaine, who is chair of the selection committee for the 2024 Shaw Prize in Astronomy. Based at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, he talks about Kulkarni’s many contributions to astronomy, including his work to make astronomical data more accessible to researchers not affiliated with major telescopes.

This podcast is sponsored by The Shaw Prize Foundation