Conversation with Debarati Chatterjee

Debarati Chatterjee is a Professor of theoretical astrophysicist at IUCAA and the Chair of Education and Public Outreach for the LIGO-India project. An avid science communicator, she founded the Indian branch of the Pint of Science festival and regularly holds outreach events in multiple languages to make science accessible to all.

In this episode, we explore her intellectual journey so far.

References:

1.‘‪Debarati Chatterjee‬ – ‪Google Scholar‬’. Accessed 18 February 2026. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wL7lJoUAAAAJ&hl=en.

2.‘Debarati Chatterjee – IUCAA’. Accessed 18 February 2026. https://www.iucaa.in/en/faculty-research/debarati.

3.‘Facebook’. Accessed 18 February 2026. https://www.facebook.com/AstroRoamer.

4.India. ‘Pint of Science India’. Accessed 18 February 2026. https://www.pintofscience.in.

5.India. ‘The Team’. Accessed 18 February 2026. https://www.pintofscience.in/team.

6.‘iPortfolio Bootstrap Template – Index’. Accessed 18 February 2026. https://web.iucaa.in/~debarati/.

7.‘LIGO India (@ligoindia) • Instagram Photos and Videos’. Accessed 18 February 2026. https://www.instagram.com/ligoindia/.

8.Linktree. ‘Ligoindia | Twitter, Instagram, Facebook’. Accessed 18 February 2026. https://linktr.ee/ligoindia.

9.‘Pint of Science India (@pintofsciencein) • Instagram Photos and Videos’. Accessed 18 February 2026. https://www.instagram.com/pintofsciencein/.

10.‘Prof. Debarati Chatterjee | LinkedIn’. Accessed 18 February 2026. https://www.linkedin.com/in/prof-debarati-chatterjee-a6072a/.

11.‘Prof. Debi (@debi.Physix) • Instagram Photos and Videos’. Accessed 18 February 2026. https://www.instagram.com/debi.physix/.

12.Sharma, Kanika. ‘I Encourage Women to Claim Their Space in Astrophysics and Beyond’. Nature, ahead of print, 21 November 2025. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-03400-1.

13.X (Formerly Twitter). ‘Prof. Debarati Chatterjee (@astro_roamer) / X’. 9 February 2019. https://x.com/astro_roamer.

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Author: G.V. Pavan Kumar

Namaste, Hola & Welcome from G.V. Pavan Kumar. I am a Professor of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, India. My research interests are : (1) Optics & Soft Matter: Optically Induced Forces – Assembly, Dynamics & Function; (2) History and Philosophy of Science – Ideas in Physical Sciences. I am interested in the historical and philosophical evolution of ideas and tools in the physical sciences and technology. I research the intellectual history of past scientists, innovators, and people driven by curiosity, and I write about them from an Indian and Asian perspective. My motivation is to humanize science. In the same spirit, I write and host my podcast Pratidhvani – Humanizing Science.

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