Dr Rajesh Mondal received his M.Sc. in Physics and his Ph.D. in astrophysics and cosmology from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, under the supervision of Prof. Somnath Bharadwaj.

 

Mondal moved on to postdoctoral research with Prof. Ilian T. Iliev at the University of Sussex and subsequently received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Wenner-Gren foundation to work with Prof. Garrelt Mellema in the Department of Astronomy and the Oskar Klein Centre at Stockholm University.

 

Mondal’s principal research field is theoretical astrophysics and cosmology, focusing on the period in the history of the universe known as the Epoch of Reionization, when the first stars and galaxies formed and essentially all normal matter in the universe transitioned from a cold, neutral state to a hot, ionized state. He constructs models to predict the properties of these first galaxies and the intergalactic medium in which these sources of light formed, and to study ways to probe them using a radio signal with the rest-frame wavelength of 21 cm, produced by atomic hydrogen. This research may unlock mysteries in astrophysics, cosmology, and perhaps physics.

 

With his prestigious Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities (IASH) and Council for Higher Education (CHE) Excellence Fellowship for International Researchers, Mondal is currently being hosted by Prof. Rennan Barkana in the Department of Astrophysics at the School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University.