• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2026

• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Astrophysics, ‘27

• Mentor: TBD

• Brookie Mentor: TBD

Simran is a Junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studying Astrophysics and Applied Sciences & Engineering. She grew up endlessly curious about the universe and has dedicated her time at UNC to building the tools and skills to explore it.

She is the Founder and President of the Rocketry Club @ UNC, a program she built from scratch that now counts over 100 members. Her technical work spans the full engineering pipeline: RockSim flight simulations, thrust calculations, CAD modeling, and the development of custom instrumentation including IR-based safety systems. The team's flagship rocket features a composite airframe and dual-deploy recovery systems with altimeter-based apogee detection, and with her NAR certification flights on the horizon, she's just getting started.

She also serves as Co-President of the Carolina Astronomy Association, connecting over 200 members with faculty mentors, research opportunities, and public stargazing events in collaboration with the Morehead Planetarium. There, she presents live astronomy shows to thousands of visitors, breaking down complex astrophysical concepts into digestible stories for diverse audiences and weaving in cultural astronomy from around the world, because to her, the universe belongs to everyone.

Her research at the Green Bank Observatory through the ERIRA program is where her passion for instrumentation really took shape. She contributed to instrument calibration and receiver upgrades on the 40-ft radio telescope, performed spectral analysis of neutral hydrogen to map the Milky Way's rotational velocity, constructed polarization maps of the North Polar Spur, and monitored solar radio activity to analyze correlations with ionospheric disturbances and solar flares. Back at UNC, she serves as an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant using the Skynet global telescope network to guide students through observational astronomy and image processing.

Outside the lab, Simran is an amateur astrophotographer, a builder of custom electronics and embedded systems, and a golfer. Her accolades include the Space Gala Scholarship at the Kennedy Space Center, a TEDx talk on identity and eccentricity, and being one of 8 students selected to represent India at the NAE-UNICEF Summit at the UN General Assembly. She is beyond thrilled to join the Brooke Owens Fellowship community, she can't wait to meet her fellow Brookies and she'll have plenty to celebrate with her cat, Tycho Pico, named after the astronomer Tycho Brahe and the unit of measurement (obviously).