Prajval Shastri

Prajval Shastri is an astrophysicist at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore and specializes in the area of phenomenology of active galaxies driven by supermassive blackholes using multi-wavelength observations ranging from radio to X-ray wavelengths.

Shastri was brought up in Mangalore and after her schooling she completed her B.Sc. in Physical Sciences from St. Agnes College Mangalore (University of Mysore). She then went on to pursue M.Sc. in Physics from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. She completed her Ph.D. from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India on the topic "Relativistic Beaming in Active Galactic Nuclei"in the year 1989 under the supervision of Vijay Kapahi.

Shastri's current research specialization is the phenomenon of Active Galactic Nuclei. Her present research areas are:

• AGN Emission-line Regions (Integrated Field Spectroscopic Imaging, WiFeS at Siding Spring)
• X-ray Emission from AGN (XMM-Newton, Suzaku)
• Jets in Radio-Quiet AGN (Very Long Baseline Interferometry, GMRT)
• Hot Gaseous outflows in AGN (Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer)
• Blazar Variability: WEBT monitoring campaigns (Vainu Bappu & Hanle Telescopes)

Shastri holds memberships of the following organizations:

• International Astronomical Union
• Organising Committee, WG on Astrostatistics & Astroinformatics, International Astronomical Union
• Organising Committee, Commission 40 (Radio Astronomy), International Astronomical Union
• Astronomical Society of India
• Indian Physics Association

Shastri's complete list of publications can be found here. Some of her papers are:

• OVI Asymmetry and an Accelerated Outflow in an Obscured Seyfert: FUSE and HST STIS Spectroscopy of Markarian 533 (2006, Astrophys. J. 646, 76; astro-ph/0603842)
• When Less Is More: Are Radio Galaxies below the Fanaroff-Riley Break More Polarized on Parsec Scales? (2005, Astrophys. J. Lett, 632, L69; astro-ph/0509559)
• Jets in Seyfert galaxies (2003, in Active Galactic Nuclei: from Central Engine to Host Galaxy, eds.: Collin, Combes & Shlosman)
• Seyferts & their Radio Morphology (2001, Astron. Astrophys. Trans., 20, 281)
• Quasar X-ray Spectra Revisited (1993, Astrophys. J., 410, 29)
• A Relativistically Beamed X-ray Component in Quasars? (1991, Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 249, 640)

• The Hindu -- Loving each dot and smudge in the sky