Dr Prajwal Kafle

I am a Research Associate at ICRAR and an astrophysicist from the Third Pole. I was grown-up amid the power-cut crisis in Nepal, so call me a circumstanced astronomer.

My main research interest is in the near-field — far-field connection.

In the Near-Field (Galactic) front: our own the Milky-Way galaxy or the neighbouring Andromeda galaxy consists of stuffs such as stars, which we can see with an aid of the telescope. As a surprise to many, a significant contributor of the galaxy weight is invisible, astronomer calls it Dark Matter. The existence of the Dark Matter can only be felt through its gravitational influence on the stars dwelling (mainly) in the outer region of the Galaxy. Stars in the outskirts of galaxies are part of the stellar halo of galaxies. I study position and motion of these stars to provide insight on the distribution of the Dark Matter in our own as well as neighbouring galaxies. Knowing Dark Matter is also crucial to understand more complex issues such as how the spiral galaxies like ours form and evolve.

In the Far-Field (Extra-galactic) front: I am interested in the physical processes occurring in galaxy group environment.  For this I study the dynamics of the galaxy groups in LCDM universe.

I am a team member of two major endeavours of Australian optical astronomy community, i.e., GALactic Archaeology with HERMES (GALAH) and Galaxy and Mass Assembly(GAMA) surveys.

I received Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Theoretical Physics from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, and Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Sydney. My Master’s thesis was supervised by Prof. Binil Aryal and was funded by Ministry of Science and Technology, Nepal. I did my Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Joss Bland-Hawthorn and Prof. Geraint F. Lewis from the University of Sydney. There, I was funded by the University of Sydney International Scholarship. Currently, I am working in International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) with Prof. Simon Driver and Associate Prof. Aaron Robotham.