Rahul Jayaraman

Hello! I’m Rahul Jayaraman (he/him), a Klarman Fellow in the College of Arts & Sciences at Cornell University. I received my PhD from the MIT Department of Physics in May 2025, with a focus on time-domain astrophysics (transients and asteroseismology) using the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, with Dr. George Ricker.

At Cornell, I’m working with the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) collaboration, on synergies with TESS in the study of early- and late-time emission from a variety of transients. I’m interested in searching for late-time flaring from luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients (LFBOTs) and other accretion-powered transients. This is in a similar vein to my PhD work, focusing on the prompt optical flash that can often accompany gamma-ray bursts—a phenomenon that is extremely difficult to observe from the ground, but can be combined with high-energy observations to characterize the jet physics.

I’m also working on shock cooling in Type IIb supernovae—specifically, studying the early-time spectra of these events to characterize their evolution, using a large sample from several years of ZTF data.

I’m also interested in binary asteroseismology with TESS. The tidal forces from a tight binary companion can affect stellar pulsations, leading to ‘‘tidally tilted pulsators,’’ and ‘‘tri-axial’’ pulsations (see, e.g., here and here for analyses of the first two TAPs discovered).

I’ve been heavily involved in departmental service work, having served as the President of the Physics Graduate Student Council from 2021-2022, and as the Physics representative to the MIT Graduate Student Union Bargaining Committee from 2022-2023. I was also one of the first graduate student readers for the MIT Physics admissions committee (from 2020-2021), and have been involved in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work both within MKI and the Physics Department. A full listing of my service activities (and publications) can be found in my CV (current as of 2026 July).

Outside of astrophysics, I enjoy airplanes and travel, rock climbing, fine dining, watching foreign TV shows, and listening to EDM and hyperpop.

This website was last updated on 24 August 2026