Reshmi Mukherjee
Department
Physics & Astronomy
Office
Room 1010
Contact
Reshmi Mukherjee joined the Barnard faculty in 1997. Her teaching assignments include such courses as "Introductory Physics (Mechanics)," "Experimental Methods in Physics, " "Supervised Individual Research," and "Quantum Physics."
Professor Mukherjee's research interests are in high-energy astrophysics and astroparticle physics. She uses ground-based atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes to study galactic and extragalactic high-energy gamma-ray sources.
One of her current projects is VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System), located in southern Arizona. VERITAS is a major ground-based gamma-ray observatory that enables the study of extragalactic and galactic high energy gamma-ray sources. The VERITAS collaboration uses an array of mirrors at night to detect the quick flashes of blue Cherenkov light that result from gamma-ray air showers.
Professor Mukherjee is also involved with the study of active galaxies, thought to be powered by super-massive black holes at their centers, and unidentified high-energy gamma-ray sources.
- BS, Presidency College, University of Calcutta
- MA, MPhil, PhD, Columbia
Experimental astrophysics
"Discovery of Very High Energy Gamma-ray Radiation from the BL Lac 1ES 0806+524," with V. Acciari, et al., The Astrophysical Journal 690L, 126 (2009).
"Search for dark matter annihilation in Draco with the Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Effect Experiment," with D.D. Driscoll, et al., Physical Review Vol. 78, No. 8 (2008): 7101.
"On the Origin of TeV Gamma-ray Emission from HESS J1834-087," with V. Gotthelf and J. P. Halpern, The Astrophysical Journal (2008).
"Transient X-ray sources in the field of the Unidentified Gamma-Ray Source TeV J2032+4130 in Cygnus," with E. V. Gotthelf and J. P. Halpern, Proceedings of the Conference The Multi-Messenger Approach to High-Energy Gamma-ray Sources, Barcelona/Spain (2006).
"Chandra Observation of the Unidentified TeV Gamma-Ray Source HESS J1303-631 in the Galactic Plane," with J. P. Halpern, The Astrophysical Journal 629, 1017 (2005).
"Multifrequency Strategies for the Identification of Gamma-Ray Sources," with J. P. Halpern, Cosmic Gamma-ray Sources, K. S. Cheng and G. E. Romero eds. (Kluwer Academic Press, 2004).
"Search for a Point-Source Counterpart of the Unidentified Gamma-Ray Source TeV J2032+4130 in Cygnus," with J. P. Halpern, E. V. Gotthelf, M.Eracleous, and N. Mirabal, The Astrophysical Journal 589, 487 (2003).
"Predictions of the High-Energy Emission from BL Lac Objects: The Case of W Comae," with M. Boettcher and A. Reimer, The Astrophysical Journal 581, 143 (2002).
"A Statistical Detection of Gamma-ray Emission from Galaxy Clusters: Implications for the Gamma-ray Background and Structure Formation," with C.Scharf, The Astrophysical Journal 580, 154 (2002).
In The News
This spring, the College and Barnard faculty members were honored with research grants to support the arts, economics, and STEM, enabling them to conduct new or continuing research, or to collaborate with other institutions.
In the summer and fall of 2017, Barnard's exceptional faculty were awarded multiple prestigious research grants and fellowships.
Reshmi Mukherjee, the Helen Goodhart Altschul Professor of Physics and Astronomy, has spent years staring into space.