UAH astrophysicist Sukanya Chakrabarti has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society for her work mapping dark matter. No more than 0.5% of members are picked each year.

A University of Alabama in Huntsville astrophysicist has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society, one of the most selective honors in physics.

Sukanya Chakrabarti holds the Pei-Ling Chan Endowed Chair in UAH’s College of Science. The society’s Division of Astrophysics recommended her, and its Council of Representatives elected her, the university said in a news release.

Each year, the number of nominees the society recommends cannot exceed one-half of 1% of its non-student members, UAH said.

What the honor is for

The fellowship citation recognizes her “novel and sustained contributions to the understanding of dark matter.” It credits her work on “extreme-precision dynamical measurements” and on binary stars that host compact objects such as black holes.

Dark matter is the unseen material that makes up much of the universe. It cannot be observed directly. Chakrabarti’s team measures the tiny pulls it exerts on stars, the university said. Its tools include:

  • pulsars
  • eclipsing binaries, pairs of stars that pass in front of each other
  • other stars measured with extreme precision

The aim is a map of where dark matter clumps in the Milky Way. “These clumps carry the fingerprints of dark-matter models and could help us answer one of the most fundamental questions in physics: What is dark matter?” Chakrabarti said.

She joined UAH in 2022. That year she led the discovery of the first stellar-mass black hole found orbiting a sun-like star using data from the Gaia mission, according to the university.

“I am tremendously grateful for the support I have had at UAH,” she said.

What it means for you

  • A Huntsville campus honored. UAH said the work adds to its standing in astrophysics and space science and gives its students a way into the research.
  • Students can take part. Prospective students can find the research groups through UAH’s Department of Physics and Astronomy.

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