Girish Kulkarni

Girish Kulkarni


I am a faculty member in the Department of Theoretical Physics of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, India.

My research is in the area of astrophysics and cosmology. I study the properties of the universe in the first billion years of its existence. Some of the questions I try to answer are how did the temperature of the universe evolve throughout the cosmic history; when and how did the first stars, black holes, and galaxies form; and what is the nature of dark matter. In my work, I collaborate closely with experimentalists as part of programmes such as SKA, REACH and XQR-30 that exploit some of the biggest current and upcoming astronomical facilities across the world.

Contact me if you are interested in doing a departmental project or a PhD thesis with me. Also get in touch if you are looking for a postdoc position to work with me, or if you would like to visit TIFR. I am currently not available to work with students for masters or summer projects.

Contact



Department of Theoretical Physics
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
Homi Bhabha Road
Mumbai 400005, India


Office: A323
Email: kulkarni@theory.tifr.res.in
Phone: +91 (0) 22–22782427


News



People



Soumak Maitra (Postdoctoral researcher; epoch of reionization)
Pooja Rani (PhD student; cosmic dawn)
Supriyo Saha (PhD student; epoch of reionization)
Jahaan Thakkar (PhD student; epoch of reionization)
Akshat Tripathi (MSc student; intergalactic medium)
Swanith Upadhye (PhD student; epoch of reionization)
Shikhar Asthana (former master’s student; now at Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute)
Nabendu Khan (former PhD student; now at Southern Methodist University)
Shikhar Mittal (former PhD student; now at University of Cambridge)
Sooryabalan Murugesan (former master’s student; now at Chennai Mathematical Institute)
Vibin Narayanan (former PhD student)
Sameer Patil (former guest researcher; now at IIT Bombay)
Janakee Raste (former postdoctoral researcher)
Sreeta Roy (former master’s student; now at University of Warsaw)
Mohit Saharan (former master’s student; now at Radboud University)
Sindhu Satyavolu (former PhD student; now at Institute for High Energy Physics, Barcelona)
Yash Sharma (former master’s student; now at Max Planck Institute for Astronomy)
Tomáš Šoltinský (former postdoctoral researcher; now at INAF Trieste)
Krishna Vijayan (former master’s student; now at University of Hertfordshire)

Recent Talks



2026 May 7: “Prospects of a Tomographic Reconstruction of Reionization using Lyman-α Emitters” (Focus Meeting on Reionization, Kavli Institute of Cosmology, Cambridge, UK)

2026 April 8: “Reionization as a Lever on Cosmology” (“Cross-Survey Cosmography” conference, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, India)

2026 April 2: “Towards Understanding the Epoch of Reionization out to the Cosmic Dawn” (IISER Mohali, Mohali, India)

2026 April 1: “From ChatGPT to AI Agents: New Tools for Research, Teaching, and Academic Life” (IISER Mohali, Mohali, India)

2026 March 18: “Using AI for Research” (“DAE-STFC Technology and Skills Programme Finale” conference, Mumbai, India)

2026 March 10: “Updates from the REACH Project” (School and Workshop on 21-cm Cosmology, Mumbai, India)

2026 March 5: “21-cm synergies with other probes of the high-redshift universe” (School and Workshop on 21-cm Cosmology, Mumbai, India)

2026 February 1: “Cosmic Dawn: Three Mysteries from the Universe’s First Billion Years” (TIFR “Chai and Why” Public Lecture, Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai, India)

2026 February 1: “Cosmic Dawn: Three Mysteries from the Universe’s First Billion Years” (TIFR “Chai and Why” Public Lecture, Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai, India)

2025 December 9: “Reionization as a Lever on Cosmology” (“Rethinking Cosmology” conference, Bengaluru, India)

Teaching



2019: Mathematical Methods
2019: Numerical Methods
2020: Computational Physics
2023: Numerical Methods
2024: Computational Physics