My research interests in instrumentation are at the intersection of engineering and astronomy. I design, simulate and test new coronagraph focal plane masks to better suppress starlight. My thesis work is to explore the potential for scalar vortex coronagraphs for exoplanet direct imaging on future space telescopes. I work on the High Contrast Spectroscopy Testbed (HCST) and at JPL on the In-Air Coronagraph Testbed (IACT) to develop new coronagraph masks and wavefront sensing and control algorithms.
Profile:
Niyati Desai grew up on Long Island, New York and conducted her first research experience at Stony Brook University under Dr. Xu Du and Dr. Matthew Dawber in graphene-ferroelectric field effect transistors. She went on to pursue a double bachelors degree in Physics and in Aerospace Engineering at MIT. While there she researched at CSAIL under Dr. Julie Shah on human-robot interaction. After interning at Northrop Grumman in 2017 on JWST, at JPL in 2018 on WFIRST's detector, and at Honeybee Robotics in 2019 she started her PhD at Caltech in GALCIT. Outside of the lab, she loves to play soccer, read and draw.
