Dr. Kuljeet Kaur Marhas is a Professor in Planetary Science Division at Physical Research Laboratory. She has been working in three sub divisions of planetary sciences (A) early evolution of Solar system (analyzing early forming solids to understand origin and evolution of Solar System), (B) presolar grains and nucleosynthesis (analyzing presolar/circumstellar grains to understand stellar evolution), (C) differentiated objects (other Solar system bodies like Moon, Mars via meteorites). Dr. Marhas has also been involved in analyzing samples from sample return missions by NASA, JAXA to understand several aspects of solar system formation. Several new scientific (theoretical and experimental) and technical projects have been initiated by her, with her recent/new interest in hydrothermal alterations and volatile transport in/at asteroidal regions.
Dr. Marhas earned her Ph.D. from Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), India, in 2001. With her new experiences achieved during her postdoctoral period at Max Planck Institute for chemistry, Mainz (2002-2005) and Washington University, St. Louis (2005-2007) she brought expertise in small grain analyses and set up her laboratory in Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad.
The grand objective of the Dr. Marhas’s Fulbright-Nehru project is to understand nucleosynthesis and temporal evolution of physico-cosmochemical conditions in novae by isotopic studies of sulphur and other elements in presolar nova grains found in meteorites. Specifically, the proposal approach is to analyze a few tens of potential presolar novae grains using C and N isotopic measurements, and subsequently measure their S isotopes to compare them with the latest nova and SN models to unequivocally establish their genealogy and provenance.