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How do I start a career in astronomy and astrophysics in

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As a person from Engineering background (currently studying or completed Bachelor's or
Master's in Engineering)
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Saurabh Singh, Feeling the Indian spirit

Upvoted by Virendra Yadav, Space Physicist and Amateur Astronomer
Having come from a similar background, I can assure you there are wonderful opportunities
for engineers in astronomy and astrophysics. I make big assumption here that you are
interested in research in astrophysics.

A bit of digression here: convince yourself that it is not a fantasy for the field rather a
genuine motivation. As advised to me once, "Notions of romance about science is not
helpful in deciding a career in it. Knowledge consumption and creating knowledge are two
different things, just as savouring a dish and cooking are. The later is far challenging but
rewarding as well. It is for long haul that you should shift to a career in astrophysics
research." So instead of wormholes and parallel universes, you are likely to research on
Galaxy luminosity function or fluctuations in Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation!

The best way is to visit the profile of professors active in astrophysical research. They
generally explain, in simple terms, about their works on their web pages. Else you can
always mail them; everybody likes to talk about their research. Websites like astrobites can
be helpful to refine your interests and expose you the kind of work that is in progress. You
can also have a look at some popular science authentic books like The First Three
Minutes and Cosmos
 Coming back to you question, there are many streams within this field all requiring different
set of skills. However at the heart, it is physics that matters in the long run. So get your
basics right! A working knowledge of five major subjects: Quantum Mechanics, Classical
Mechanics, Statistical Mechanics, Thermodynamics and Electrodynamics is required. It
would be better if you could credit these courses in your college else look for online courses
onCoursera and others. It is better if you credit them since while applying for graduate
admissions, some universities demand these courses on your transcripts.

You should also look into Physics GRE/ JEST syllabus and prepare for them for pursuing
research in astrophysics abroad or in India respectively.

Astrophysics/astronomy can be broadly divided into three branches (as far as methodology
of the work goes): Theory, Observations and Instrumentation. The names might be self
explanatory. For the first, you really need a strong hold on undergraduate physics. A
knowledge in computational simulations would be icing on the cake. Observations and
Instrumentation might be suited to you (but by no means does that eliminate possibility of
theoretical research; most of my engineer friends into astrophysics are theoreticians!).
Observational astronomy deals with detecting and observing astronomical sources of
interest using telescopes around the world (or the one you made). It deals with a lot of
computational stuff like image processing and data analysis. Proficiency in coding will give
you a big advantage here (It all boils down to coding and statistics in the end, believe me
:P).
Instrumentation/Experimental part deals with developing your own
detector/receiver/antenna for observing sources/signals. It is an emerging field and is a
storehouse of lot of engineer turned scientists. It requires a mix of electronics, computer
science and obviously physics fundamentals.

The best way to go is do a bit of background reading in astrophysics and try to engage in
projects during semester off at different places/fields. Some projects like RADatHome are
also helpful.

Keep looking for opportunities. I am sure you would end up in a fulfilling astrophysics
career. All the best.

Updated 9 Dec, 2014

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Related Questions

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Astronomy: How do I pursue a master's degree in astronomy in India? What are the
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Abhijeet Borkar, PhD student in Physics (Astrophysics)

Upvoted by Jonathan Brill, Recruited, hired, trained, and managed tech employees
Abhijeet has 80+ answers in Astronomy.
Trust me, you don't want to.

Let me tell you why. Right now, you have no more background in Physics apart from the
general 12th grade Physics (and may be applied physics in Engineering, which, to be honest,
is nothing like studying pure physics). Also you don't have background of sufficient
mathematics apart from usual maths courses in Engineering. So if you want to become
competitive in India, and want to do a Ph.D., you will have to have enough understanding of
both the subjects so that you can pass the entrance exams and be competitive in research.
For that you will have to spend some time learning pure Physics and Mathematics. [Abhijeet
Borkar's answer to What math should a physics major learn?]. Ideal scenario would be to
join a BSc course in Physics and later take up an MSc. But I don't think you want to spend
next 5 years again in college. Even if you study everything on your own, it will still take you
3-4 years to have an understanding of subjects equivalent to top 3-5 percentile in India.
(Most top institutes in India invite only top 1-3% of students for interviews.) Ask yourself if
you are willing to do that. I'm not saying that it is impossible to do this. There have been few
people in India who have shifted from Engineering to Astrophysics. But usually they either
had very good level of Physics & Maths understanding (for example, from IITs) or shifted
just after their bachelor's degree and got Masters in Physics. Shifting to an entirely new
career where you have to start from scratch will be a huge risk. (Also don't compare with
older generation or people from other countries as they had different style of education than
current 'average engineering college' in India.)

Let's assume you accomplish that (i.e. get understanding of Physics and Maths equivalent to
MSc. and find a PhD). Then you you have further problems down the road. Although there
is no lack of PhDs, but there is in general a lack of mid-level jobs, which are necessary for
your path towards becoming a professor or a research professional (assuming you want to
stay in academia). Research also involves moving to different place, many times different
city, country or even continent, every two years or so, and that means no stability. Research
jobs such as post doc positions are some of the worst paid jobs for the amount of education
and time you haveINVESTED . Because of this, many people who are very good researchers
are leaving academia. A PhD student earns about INR 18,000, while a post doc earns about
INR 25,000. By the time you will finish your PhD, you'll be in your thirties, still earning the
same amount which a fresher gets in a MNC as a software developer. It is practically
impossible to build a family unless you already have inherited wealth from your parents or
your spouse earns twice the amount you do.
Another thing I want to mention is that, it's one thing being amazed by the fascination of
Physics and Astronomy by reading popular science books, and those are meant exactly for
that. But actual scientific research is much different from popular science. I meet many
people who are fascinated by Relativity and Black Holes and expansion of Universe and stuff
like that from reading Stephen Hawkings' books (just an example). And because these books
are written in a simple manner, many people think that research in GR or black holes is
nothing more than armchair philosophy. Nothing is far from truth. You can just go
through arXiv.org and follow some papers to get an idea. Also go through phdcomics.com to
understand what is the life of a researcher (the comics are scarily accurate).
[From The Upturned Microscope]

The main points you need to understand are:

This career change means that you are going to spend next few yearrs of life back in
college, even before you start your PhD.
You will have no earnings/saving till you establish yourself till you reach 30. (this
especially is important if you want to start family early/support current family).
There is still no guarantee even after a PhD that you will get a job afterwards, and
you will eventually have to leave research anyway.
Academia is like drug cartel. The chances of a person with a PhD in Physics/Maths
getting a permanent faculty position is less than 1:10.Reading popular science is one
thing, doing research is quite different, and difficult.
Life as a researcher is not easy. (Pro tip: read PHD Comics. They're not parody of
academia, they are a documentary of it).
If you decide to continue in academia, you will have to go through at least 1-2 post-
doc positions, followed by a tenure-track that will eventually lead you to faculty
position. All this means you will be jumping from one place to other every 2-3 years.
That is not something you want to do in your late 20s/early 30's especially if you are
married/in a relationship/have kids. The logistical troubles outweigh the fun of moving
around.

My suggestion would be, to continue what you are doing. If you are passionate about
Astronomy, join some amateur astronomy groups, attend star gazing parties, seminars etc.,
read science magazines and enjoy it.

Updated 22 Jan, 2014 Asked to answer by Arpit Trivedi

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Quora User, A mechanical engineer, amateur astronomer, a chess player...

Upvoted by Abhijeet Borkar, PhD student in Physics (Astrophysics)
Perfectly answered by my friend Abhijeet Borkar already. I can understand your situation as
I had also passed through exactly same condition. I am a mechanical engineer and will be
completing my Master's in this fall. I also have an inclination towards astronomy as you do
and had a thought of doing PhD in the field of Astronomy or Astrophysics a year ago (when I
was in first year of my masters) I searched on the internet about the courses available in
India for PhDs and corresponding exams. I tried to solve sample Physics and Mathematics
questions as well which appear in such entrance exams. I was able to solve simple
mechanics problems involving Newton's laws of motion etc., but things get immediately
complicated when there are questions related to quantum mechanics and even
electromagnetism. Same with Mathematics. Calculus questions seemed solvable but I could
not solve simple probability questions. ( I am not good at probability from the beginning
though:P) But the point which I want to convey here is, I realized that I will have to spend a
lot of time in learning Physics and Mathematics not because I am weak at it but because I
have no idea about advanced level Physics and Mathematics and whatever I had learned
during Engineering is quite elementary and mostly forgotten. Obviously you don't want to
spend additional years of learning for the reason mentioned by Abhijeet.

Now as a next part of my answer, I would like to suggest you some things which you can do
as an engineer as well as an amateur astronomer . I don't know if you have heard
about Zooniverse - Real Science Online project. This is a great place to start with. They have
number of projects going on and you can participate in any project. The idea behind this
project is simple. Professional astrophysicist need resources to analyse the data they get
from say different telescopes like Kepler or Hubble. It is impossible to analyze each and
every photo by very few people. So what do they do? They share those photos with
thousands of amateur astronomers like you and me. Yes, it's real data from those telescopes!
You can help classifying galaxies or exo-planets or any other mysterious objects. If you
register with these projects they also give you the credit if you discover something new. For
example, Hanny's Voorwerp . This object is named after Dutch school teacher Hanny van
Arkel. She found this object in Galaxy zoo project.
Another thing you can do as an engineer is 'Writing programs'. You can write several object
detection programs which might be helpful to analyze image data obtained from telescopes.
Remember, doing PhD is a huge "task" and you will have tremendous pressure about thesis
writing,doing something "new" and you will lose the "fun" part of it in couple of months. On
the contrary, you can contribute to real science by Zooniverse project, discover new things
while having your day job !!

Written 19 May
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Shrirang Kesari, Engineer. Bedroom Thinker. Bathroom Singer. Loner at will. Above all -
Nothin...
Please please please only think of Astrophysics as a career if you are genuinely interested in
it. It does not pay as much as Computers pay you in this age and takes almost a decade to
get recognized in any way.

However if you are truly interested, the experience will be overwhelmingly fulfilling (which I
am afraid I missed out on.).

Having said that Astrophysics in India today is booming so to speak with a handsome
number of institutes catering to this field:
1. Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) and National Centre for
Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) in Pune serve as dedicated centres for study.
2. Now getting limelight is the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIAP) in Bangalore.
3. Tata Institute of Fundamental research (TIFR. NCRA is also a part of this) is in Mumbai
and caters to all branches of Physics.
3. Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Nainital:Astronomy and
Astrophysics, and Atmospheric Physics (ARIES) in Nainital gives more reasons than just
Astrophysics to be admitted to.
4. Other institutes like IISc Bangalore may not be only dedicated to astrophysics but do
research on physics as a whole with a department dedicated to Astrophysics.

You may search for these institutes on Google. All have pretty decent websites where you
will get lot of information.

Most of these institutes also run smaller courses esp. in summers which you can opt for if
you want to try your hand at knowing what it is like. Find out more information on the
websites.

Coming to the selection process, it is handled via an examination called JEST (Joint
Entrance Screening Test).
Here's the website : Joint Entrance Screening Test

Here you will get information about eligibility, exam dates, application process and the
participating institutes. All institutes mentioned above participate. Plus there are others -
close to 30 in all.

Hope this has helped!

Written 11 Dec, 2014

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Aditi Makhija, Student. Thinker. Dreamer

I don't think I can add anything much to what Saurabh's answer already says. Here are the
key points:
Look for courses at Coursera, edX. Catch up with some videos on Khan
Academy.
Once you are familiar with the field, you'll pick up one certain subject that piques
your interest.
Find out ongoing research in this field. Get the hang of reading research papers.
 In these research papers, certain names will appear more frequently than
others.Write to them,tell them about yourself,your courses,your interest in astrophysics
and at least a paragraph about their research and how it has impressed you.Ask them if
you can intern for summer at their lab.
People might not initially reply to you as your major is different. But someone will,till
then don't give up.
When you start reading something, you might not initially understand the subject.
That is okay. Don't give up. Ask your friends from the Physics department if they could
help you. You can also contact one of the professors at your own university to help you
out.
Don't give up.Keep working.Once you get the hang of the subject,things will fall into
place.Good luck!!

Written 10 Dec, 2014 Asked to answer by Anmol Mehta

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Vivishek Sudhir, PhD candidate in Physics

There is no straightforward and universal path that starts from being an engineering
student to a career physicist. Science, more so than most other fields, has a rigorous
tendency to self-correct itself, and is thus a very meritocratic enterprise. Ultimately, how
good you are, determines whether you succeed. How good you are depends on how deep
your knowledge of the basics is, and how well you are able to use basic knowledge to
synthesize new knowledge (a.k.a scientific creativity).

As an engineering student aspiring to dip your feet into physics, the most important thing
(other than the passion and desire) is to have a sound understanding of the basic
mathematics and physics expected from a physics major (the knowledge part).

For mathematics, this includes a sound working knowledge of basic analysis

(Stein/Shakarchi level), linear algebra (Shilov or Gelfand or Halmos), differential geometry
a.k.a multivariate calculus (Arfken/Weber, or Spivak if interested in more mathematical
aspects of physics), variational calculus (Lanczos) and probability+stochastic methods
(Stratonovich).

A similar list of t0-learn, also exists on the physics side: classical mechanics (Goldstein, or
better Lanczos), statistical physics (Landau/Lifshitz), electrodynamics (Griffith, or
Landau/Lifshitz), quantum mechanics (Cohen-Tannoudji, or better Dirac), relativity
(Pauli). These are the basics one needs to know - physics, being less of an empirical science,
has the advantage that one can synthesize knowledge starting from these basics - a very
efficient way to learn.
Depending on your university, you could attend courses in the relevant department to get a
handle on these, or learn in your free time. If you feel that the BTech program is already
taking a toll on your free time, and you are struggling to keep up with the BTech curriculum,
then it is a good indicator (given the lackadaisical 4 year BTech programs in India) that
maybe you will get weeded out from physics at a later stage. If you do have free time, then
learning these basics is a good use of it.

More specialized topics, building on these basics, like QFT (Hatfield, Ramond,
Peskin/Schroeder...), general relativity+cosmology (Padmanabhan or Hawking/Ellis),
plasma physics which are relevant for astrophysics, may also need to be perused. However it
is probably more efficient to study these in the course of a research project.

Which brings us to the second ingredient to let you test yourself as a physicist: research
experience. Having got the basics right, try to work on a research project under the
supervision of a faculty member in the relevant area. Undergrad research experience tells
you how well you understand the basics, and how well you choose the right tools to attack
open problems. You may not necessarily solve big problems, but that is fine; but you will
understand the daily rigors of research, which is far from the romantic ideal which you may
have in your mind. Make sure that you engage with your supervisor for longer than a
semester, and don't be afraid to pick their brains, and those of his regular PhD candidates.

Once you succeed in doing all this in 4 years of day-time engineering studies, you are
equipped with a knowledge of what physics looks like in reality, and what being in the
physics community feels like. At this juncture you start thinking of where you would like to
go to further your experience on both these fronts...

Written 9 May
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Apoorv Vishnoi, Works at Siemens

Well you can get into ISRO, you can go to their website or other such organisation and you
must have knowledge of Physics and Maths as specified by everyone else, But i would not
like to complicate it for you.

I don't like reading long answers, nor do i like to de-motivate people on what they can do
and what they should really do ! You can get into that stream but it rather depends what
works you get to do in their.

NOW READ THIS : "Requirements for a Career in Astronomy & Astrophysics

Astronomy & Astrophysics may be taught as a special course in the MSc. programmes of the
physics departments in the universities or colleges. It is desirable for a student to acquire
proficiency in physics and mathematics at the graduate level and then to Astronomy &
Astrophysics specialization. An engineer with a B.Tech or B.E. degree, with an
aptitude for Astronomy and Astrophysics, can also enter the field as a research
scholar."

SOURCE : Career In Astronomy

When people say you can't or you should not, that means their is a way to do that and they
just don't want you to get onto same platform ! You need to have a good knowledge of
your subjects and you can get into astro physics !!!

Written 12 May
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Divyanshu Sahay, Learning

I am probably not the right person to answer this but let's see.

You are in 2nd Yr CSE,

You have 1 more year to figure out what exactly you wanna do in life.

In coming years, there are lot of new things that you will come across which you may like
and would love to pursue.

Give some time and decide at the end of first half of your 3rd year.

Astrophysics as you would have read few answers is not just about studying heavenly
bodies. There is a lot more to it.

If you have decided that this is what you want to do then find a specific interest in the field
and follow it.

Plan your internship in the same area as well.

Try finding a relevant link between your present area of study and the one you would like in
Astrophysics to go with.

Publishing papers always help.

As you will be applying for a different field for your masters, you must provide some logical
reason to the university as to why are you making such an unconventional jump.

In short, do not let your 4 yrs of study go waste. You can find many options wherein you
may pursue Astrophysics without leaving your area of knowledge. So, start the background
work today.

Written 11 Dec, 2014 Asked to answer by Anmol Mehta

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Varun Jorapur, Amateur Astronomer, IITian

Much of what other people have said is true. As they said, astrophysics involves a lot of
computation and programming, and if you are familiar with a programming language, it is
very helpful. Since you are in CSE, I assume that you will do/will have done programming
courses.

One thing that I can suggest is that you start learning python, because that is very useful in
astrophysics. Python has many modules which help in analyzing astrophysical data easily.
For example, there is astropy, numpy which are extensively used in all sorts of data analysis,
especially astropy (as the name itself suggests). Since you still have 2 more years to pass out,
you can do a lot of programming and get very familiar with python.

One other thing is that you can start familiarizing yourself with a bit of observational
astronomy. You could join a club if your college has one, or you could join a local club. This
would provide you with much of the background information regarding astronomy. Most of
the images taken by telescopes contain information in RA and Dec. If you are unfamiliar
with these terms, then it would only do well to join a club. Besides, observational astronomy
is a lot of fun, and you can have awesome nights enjoying the universe.would be

You could also try applying for a project in the summers in IUCAA or IIA. They are very
keen to have students, and if you show sufficient interest, you might get a project. Also, the
projects offered by them are very interesting, and you would be interacting with actual
scientists.

TL;DR:

Learn python/a programming language. Get into observational astronomy. Try doing
projects at IUCAA/IIA or other institutes. Read up on astronomy/astrophysics.

Written 13 Dec, 2014 Asked to answer by Anmol Mehta

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Abhinav Dhere, studying Astrophysics from ANU (edX)
Similar to you, I am a 3rd year ECE student studying in India and wanting to learn
Astrophysics. (Though I like my branch too & didn't take it for any tradition)
Anyway, back to point. As Saurabh Singh sir said, there is a lot of computational stuff
involved, and a computer science background will help you there.
For building a basic knowledge in Astrophysics, I would recommend you an edX course
series from Australian National University. I am close to finish one of its courses and loving
it. It is being taught by Dr Brian Schmidt (Nobel Prize Winner in Physics) and Dr Paul
Francis and apart from teaching the basics, it focuses on teaching the methodology by which
observations are formulated into theories, including the calculations behind those results.
They are four courses, out of which 3 have finished but are still accessible and 1 will be
released next year. See: ANUx
Following this, try for a masters and PhD in astrophysics.
In India, there are few opportunities like

1) Integrated M.Tech+PhD program at Indian Institute of Astrophysics(IIA)-Integrated

M.Tech.- Ph.D (Tech.)

2) M.S. in Astronomy & Astrophysics at Indian Institute of Space Science & Technology
(IIST) - http://www.iist.ac.in/admission/...

Or you can prepare for GRE/TOEFL and join an astrophysics program at a good foreign
university.
So I believe that is the way ahead :)

Written 9 Dec, 2014

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Abhimanyu Susobhanan, Bachelors in Astronomy

Abhimanyu has 100+ answers in Astronomy.

What is the scope and salary of this field?

No one becomes an Astrophysicist for salary. The attraction of being an Astrophysicist is
that you get to explore beyond the boundaries of existing knowledge and in the process solve
exciting problems.

Most professional astronomers are employed in either academia or in observatories/labs. In

USA, the typical salary of a research associate (postdoc) is around $40k. For assistant
professors, it starts at $50k and for senior professors, it is $80k.
 The talents (eg: instrumentation, problem-solving, numerical computations etc.) you
acquire through a doctorate in astronomy will qualify you for positions in industry though
these jobs may not be astronomy per se. The salaries are higher here than in academia
though job security is less.

Ref: Careers in Astronomy

How can I become an astrophysicist or a cosmologist?

The usual path to be an astronomer is to do bachelors in physics/mathematics (degrees in
chemistry or engineering work too) and then go for astronomy in grad school. Most people
end up with a doctoral degree and do one or more postdocs which is required for a career in
academia.

Written 5 May Asked to answer by Karthika Ramdoss

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