Cosmology Studies

Gaura is a 12th grade student from Notre Dame of Holy Cross School, Tamil Nadu, India. She would like to major in astronomy or cosmology studies in the future.

Gaura has a strong passion in cosmology studies. She has a Merit certificate from NASA and has achieved best performance in International Space Science Competition. In school, she is a joint secretary in English Club, vice president in Nature Club and an assistant school pupil leader, demonstrating an extensive leadership skill.

Scope of the program

Overall structure

Exploring basic astronomy and astrophysics, and undertake an astronomy project

Learning objectives

Learn about stars: their formation, evolution and characteristics
Explore galactic astronomy and basic cosmology studies
Successfully complete an astronomy project.

What challenges did she face?

Gaura has a burning passion in Cosmology studies and would like to work with a professor who specializes on this research topic, but that wasn’t available in school.
Gaura was met with various challenging questions in her pursuit to develop the research paper, however that was solved by creating a question sheet the mentor and Gaura shared on a regular basis.

How did our Cosmology program help her?

Gaura was able to gain a deeper understanding in Astronomy and Cosmology theories to develop her research paper.
Gaura learnt to use the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram to investigate the relationship between the stars’ absolute magnitudes or luminosities versus their spectral class or effective temperatures.

Matched professor in Cosmology Studies:

He holds a Ph.D. at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University, where he helped lay the foundations of gravitational lensing research. He is editor of an online journal The Pantaneto Forum, which is devoted to science communication and founder and chief executive of the Pantaneto Press, which publishes books in the physical sciences.

Recommendation letter

Based on your knowledge of this student, would you recommend this student to selective universities?

“Yes, Gaura is an extremely able student, who is prepared to work hard. Gaura was extremely keen to learn and engage with the subject. She is an extremely able student. In her own quiet way she succeeds in everything thrown at her: a pleasure to teach.”
Former lecturer of UCL