National Science Day| An astrophysicist’s journey from starlight to solving the solar neutrino puzzle

On National Science Day, join Sarbani Basu as she shares her inspiring journey in astrophysics, unraveling the solar neutrino puzzle and promoting gender equality in science.

From childhood inspiration to working at the Institute for Advanced Study — once home to Albert Einstein — she reflects on curiosity, challenges, and uncovering the Sun’s deepest secrets.

The Sun is right under our noses, so to speak, and when one thinks of astrophysics, one thinks of more distant celestial objects. What made you curious about the Sun?

When I did my Ph.D. many years ago, it wasn’t on the Sun. It was on our galaxy, and how different parts of the galaxy evolve. At that time, there was very little data about the composition of stars and the ages of stars, how far they are, it’s a completely different field now. But at that time, there was nothing and I was quite tired that the data did not allow me to discriminate between models. I had just submitted my thesis, and I wasn’t as enamoured with the field anymore.

After your thesis, what made you lose motivation? Was it the lack of data?

Yes, and I had a slightly rocky relationship with my thesis supervisor, which I learned much later was nothing unusual. I mean, lots of people have rocky relationships with their thesis supervisors. In the Indian context at that time, we didn’t have thesis committees where there are other faculty members you could talk to. So if you had a hard, difficult relationship with your supervisor, then it really made everything else difficult.

So what did you do?