Postdoctoral Fellow · Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

Harsh Kumar

Astrophysicist · Transient Phenomena · Multi-Messenger Astronomy

Cambridge, MA · USA

Exploring gamma-ray bursts, kilonovae, superluminous supernovae, and tidal disruption events through multi-wavelength observations

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Who I Am

About Me

Harsh Kumar

Postdoctoral Fellow · Astrophysics

CfA | Harvard & Smithsonian

NSF-IAIFI

Cambridge, MA, USA

harsh.kumar@cfa.harvard.edu

0000-0003-0871-4641

Decoding the Universe's Most Extreme Events

I am an astrophysicist specialising in time-domain and high-energy transient phenomena, with primary focus on superluminous supernovae (SLSNe), tidal disruption events (TDEs),kilonovae,Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs).

My doctoral work at IIT Bombay centred on the GROWTH-India Telescope — India's first robotic research telescope — leading rapid follow-up campaigns for GRB afterglows and gravitational-wave electromagnetic counterparts. I am currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and a Junior Investigator at the NSF-Institute for AI and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI).

My research combines multi-wavelength observing campaigns (UV,optical, NIR, X-ray, radio) of SLSNe-I, r-process nucleosynthesis, and the diversity of catastrophic stellar endpoints.

GW EM CounterpartsSuperluminous Supernovae Gamma-Ray BurstsKilonovae Tidal Disruption EventsGROWTH-India Telescope Multi-Wavelength Obs.Swift · Fermi · XMM Python · AstropyAI / ML in Astrophysics

Career Timeline

2023 – Present

Postdoctoral Fellow Active

Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, USA

2023 – Present

Junior Investigator Active

NSF-IAIFI, Cambridge, USA

2023

Institute Post-Doctoral Fellow

IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India

2018 – 2023

Ph.D. — Astrophysics

IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India · CGPA 9.3/10

Thesis: Studying optical counterparts of gravitational waves and gamma-ray burst afterglows with the GROWTH-India Telescope

2015 – 2017

M.Sc. — Astrophysics & Nuclear Physics

University of Delhi, Delhi, India · 69.6%

2012 – 2015

B.Sc. — Physics

University of Delhi, Delhi, India · 90.3%

View Full CV Full Paper List

What I Study

Research Interests

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Superluminous Supernovae

Characterising the photometric and spectroscopic evolution of SLSNe — among the most luminous stellar explosions known — to constrain central engine physics, host galaxy environments, and progenitor channels.

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Gamma-Ray Bursts

Multi-wavelength afterglow modelling of long and short GRBs. Probing relativistic jet physics, prompt-emission mechanisms, and compact-object central engines using Swift, Fermi, and ground-based telescopes.

🌊

Kilonovae & GW Counterparts

Rapid follow-up photometry and spectroscopy of r-process nucleosynthesis transients from neutron-star mergers. Led GROWTH-India campaigns for LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA O3 and Berger-Villar groups' efforts during O4 observing runs.

🌀

Tidal Disruption Events

Multi-wavelength monitoring of stars disrupted by supermassive black holes, probing accretion disc formation, relativistic jet launching.

🔭

GROWTH-India Telescope

Former Development team leader for India's first robotic 0.7 m research telescope at IAO Hanle (4500 m). Designed automated real-time scheduling and pipelines for transient discovery, follow-up, and multi-band photometry.

📡

Multi-Messenger Astronomy

Coordinating global telescope networks for EM follow-up of gravitational-wave events, high-energy neutrino alerts, and gamma-ray triggers in near-real time with rapid-response observing protocols.

⚙️

AI / ML in Astrophysics

Applying machine-learning methods to transient classification, automated survey pipelines, and neural-network approaches to time domain astronomy as a Junior Investigator at IAIFI (NSF).

Get In Touch

Let's Connect

Open to Collaborations

Whether it's a joint observing proposal, transient follow-up coordination, a data-analysis collaboration, or a discussion about the latest GRB or gravitational-wave detection — I'm always happy to connect with fellow researchers worldwide.

Emailharsh.kumar@cfa.harvard.edu

ORCID0000-0003-0871-4641

NASA ADSPublication Library

Google ScholarCitation Profile

GitHubharshkumar13

arXivPreprint Server