Gourav Khullar
Baum Fellow for Innovative Astronomy, UWashington
Studies of High-redshift Quiescent Galaxies and Gravitational Lensing
I hold the Baum Fellowship For Innovative Astronomy at the Dept of Astronomy, and a Data Science Postdoctoral Fellowship in the eScience Institute, at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA (since 2024).
I work on understanding the mechanisms that cause quenching in the Universe’s first galaxies. I conduct this work with global and spatially resolved observations of dead and dying galaxies with the combination of space telescopes and strong gravitational lensing.
JWST observations have quickly become some of my favorite data to play with!
Previously, I was a Samuel P Langley PITT PACC Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, for two years. I received my PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago in 2022, where I worked on understanding the properties of quenched systems in galaxy clusters, as well as bright galaxies gravitationally lensed by the very same massive systems.I am a teacher, instructor, mentor and advisor to graduate and undergraduate students. As part of my work and learning, I strive to incorporate inclusive pedagogy in my interactions and communication with my students, both in the classroom and in a research setting.My community work in Astronomy has taken many directions, including science communication with Astrobites for 7 years. These days, I am primarily focused on equity, inclusion and justice work in my local communities. Academic departments often have local problems, requiring local solutions, that complement cross-institutional and global efforts. I see my work as helping organize the former at the grassroots level, while learning from the latter.
My Research Interests
Quenched and Post-Starburst Galaxies at High Redshift
Galaxies Magnified by Strong Gravitational Lensing in Galaxy Cluster Fields
Spatially Resolved Star Formation Histories
Stellar Population Synthesis Modeling and SED Fitting Methodologies
Research Talks (Recorded):
IAU Symposium 2024, Cape Town, South Africa, S391, Cosmic History with JWST : Youtube link here
Surveys and Collaborations
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LEGGOS
Lensing and Galaxy Growth: Observing Subtructures, is a novel spectrophotometric lensed galaxy survey.
I am the Co-PI and Survey Manager of JWST LEGGOS, an amalgamation of Cycle 2 GO programs 4125 and 3843. -

UNCOVER
JWST Deep Field Survey — Imaging and Spectroscopy — of the Abell 2744 Lensing Cluster Field (PIs Bezanson, Labbe).
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COOL-LAMPS
Co-founder of the COOL-LAMPS Collaboration: ChicagO Optically-selected Lenses — Located at the Margins of Public Surveys. A collaboration borne out of an undergraduate research class at the University of Chicago in 2020 (PI: Gladders).
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SLICE
Strong Lensing and Cluster Evolution (SLICE) is a JWST Cycle 3 Survey that imaged 124 galaxy cluster lenses in JWST/NIRCam’s ultra-wide F150W2 and F322W2 filters, and found hundreds of new lensed arcs and built robust lens models for the community.
Apart from science communication, I am deeply invested in inclusive teaching methodologies, and community work. For more details, please see the pages below.