TANMOY LASKAR portrait
  • Assistant Professor, Physics And Astronomy
801-581-7983

Research Summary

I study energetic transient astrophysical phenomena, with a focus on relativistic explosions such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave (GW) sources. My work informs our understanding of the final stages of stellar evolution, serve as laboratories of fundamental physics from particle acceleration to the launch and collimation of relativistic outflows, and provide precise probes of the infant Universe.

Education

  • PhD, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Harvard University
  • MA, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Harvard University
  • BA, Natural Sciences: Physics, University of Cambridge
  • BSc, Physics, University of Delhi

Biography

I am an Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Utah (USA) since August 2022. 

I was previously a Fellow of the Radboud Excellence Initiative at Radboud University, Nijmegen (The Netherlands), a postdoc at the University of Bath, and a Jansky Fellow of the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory at the University of California, Berkeley from 2015 - 2018. I completed my PhD in Astronomy from Harvard University, where I studied the progenitors and environments of long-duration gamma-ray bursts. 

I received my undergraduate degree in Physics from St. Stephen's College at the University of Delhi, India in 2007. From 2007 to 2009, I studied Parts II and III in Physics at Trinity College,University of Cambridge. At Trinity, I held the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Trust Cambridge Scholarship, which is a fellowship given to one undergraduate from India every year. I received my Masters in Astronomy from Harvard in 2011.

I am an amateur astronomer and love looking up at the night sky. I built a 6" Newtonian reflecting telescope to explore the wonders of the celestial sphere. I also designed and built a 20 MHz radio receiver for observing radio bursts from Jupiter and the Galaxy, based on NASA's Radio-Jove concept.

Besides astronomy, I love reading, writing, poetry, ballroom dance, and music. When I'm not working, I can be found long-distance mentoring my SF Bay area-based chamber choir Tactus, or writing Renaissance polyphony.