Aparna Venkatesan headshot

Aparna Venkatesan

Professor

Full-Time Faculty
Harney Science Center G30
Socials

Biography

Aparna Venkatesan is an astronomer in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of San Francisco, and co-Director of USF's Tracy Seeley Center for Teaching Excellence. She works on studies of the first stars and quasars in the universe, and on numerous cultural astronomy and space policy projects. She also serves as co-Chair of the American Astronomical Society's Committee to Protect Astronomy and the Space Environment (COMPASSE). Dr. Venkatesan has been recognized internationally for her research and diversity/inclusion leadership, featured widely in the media, and received numerous prizes and awards. She is deeply committed to increasing the participation and retention of underrepresented groups in astronomy and the sciences, and is active in developing co-created scientific partnerships with Indigenous communities worldwide. 

Dr. Venkatesan has worked with nearly two dozen USF undergraduates on award-winning projects, with over half those students going onto STEM careers. In recent years, Dr. Venkatesan has been leading work in dark-sky advocacy and developing protections for natural darkness and space as an environment for science, sky traditions, diverse ecosystems, language and heritage. She recently created the neologism ""noctalgia"" with Dr. John Barentine to express “sky grief” for the accelerating loss of the home environment of our shared skies. Noctalgia (sky grief) struck an interdisciplinary chord globally from Fall 2023 onwards, from ongoing international art exhibits commemorating dark skies, dozens of media and podcast mentions, poetry, musical compositions in popular and black metal genres, a new sign created in British Sign Language, inclusion in Urban Dictionary, listed among 2023’s top new words in numerous year-end listings, and more.

Dr. Venkatesan speaks a few times a month through conference talks, briefings, institutional colloquia and guest lectures for other universities, most recently including: the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii, the Indigenous Education Institute, Princeton University, invited space ethics webinar for DARPA (US Department of Defense), invited plenary at the American Astronomical Society 2024 summer meeting, invitation to testify in the Dec. 2023 House Committee on Natural Resources Oversight Hearing on The Mineral Supply Chain and the New Space Race, New Mexico public charter arts high schools as part of a statewide Hyperspace Challenge, guest lectures at Smith College and MIT, and a series of full-capacity interdisciplinary astronomy-art-storytelling events hosted by the San Francisco Exploratorium. Fall 2024 talks include the Iona lecture at St. Columba’s Inverness, an evening lecture for the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers, and speaking at the United Nations General Assembly Science Summit in late Sept. 2024.

Expertise

  • Cosmology
  • Cultural astronomy
  • Dark sky advocacy
  • Impacts of satellite constellations
  • STEM partnerships with indigenous communities, indigenous knowledge

Research Areas

  • Cosmology (First stars and quasars, earliest galaxies, cosmic reionization)
  • Space policy and impacts of satellite constellations
  • Legal-policy protections for space as an environment
  • Cultural astronomy
  • Indigenous knowledge

Appointments

  • Co-Director of the Tracy Seeley Center for Teaching Excellence (2022-25)
  • Advisor for the 2023-26 NSF-funded project The Cultural Roots of STEM: A Synthesis of Non-Western STEM Learning Paradigms
  • Co-Chair of the American Astronomical Society Committee for the Protection of Astronomy and the Space Environment (AAS COMPASSE; 2022-25)
  • Member of the AAS Committee for the Status of Minorities in Astronomy (2015–19), and the AAS Committee for the Status of Women in Astronomy (2016–19, co-Chair for 2016–17)
  • Chair, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of San Francisco (2014-16)

Education

  • MS and PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago
  • BA in Astronomy, Cornell University

Prior Experience

  • Postdoctoral Research Associate and NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Colorado, Boulder

Awards & Distinctions

  • USF/USF Full-time Faculty Association Distinguished Research Award for outstanding research contributions to an academic discipline (2024)
  • USF Post-sabbatical merit award for exceptional productivity in research over sabbatical year (awarded in 2023 for 2019-20)
  • Lead USF Faculty Member in 22-institution consortium, The Undergraduate ALFALFA Team (UAT), awarded three 3-year NSF collaborative grants (2021–2024, 2016– 2019 and 2012–2015)
  • Research Corporation Cottrell Scholar (2018) and Cottrell College Science Award (2010-13)
  • University of San Francisco Awards: Arthur Furst Award (2018), Co-recipient of the College of Arts and Sciences Collective Achievement Award for Supporting Women in STEM Fields (2018), Dean's Scholar Award (2013), and Jesuit Foundation Grant (2012)

Selected Publications

Media

Recent Podcasts