Biography
Pal Aggarwal is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, where she completed a B.Tech. (Honours) in Engineering Physics with minors in Computer Science and Machine Intelligence. At Oxford, she is pursuing an MSc in Mathematical and Theoretical Physics, to be followed by a DPhil (PhD) in Astrophysics. Her research interests lie in high-energy astrophysics, particularly transients, black hole accretion and relativistic jet formation. During her undergraduate studies, she researched the black hole information paradox at the National University of Singapore, worked on the Fast Radio Burst detection pipeline for the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT), and contributed to ‘Daksha’, a proposed Indian satellite mission to study electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational-wave events.
As an aspiring astronaut, Pal is passionate about advancing space science and encouraging more women to pursue careers in STEM. Alongside her academic pursuits, she has also gained experience in management consulting through an internship with Bain & Company. She is fluent in French, has solo-travelled across more than twenty countries, and is a trained Bharatnatyam and contemporary dancer with a keen interest in psychology.