Hrishabh Srivastava
Why did you decide to pursue a graduate degree?
As an undergraduate student, I was fascinated by the number of unsolved problems in the sciences. As I learned increasingly complicated tools in physics and mathematics, I became eager to tackle these problems, particularly those related to the wonders of the night sky.
This curiosity ultimately led me to pursue a graduate degree and a career in scientific research. The prospect of contributing to discoveries, or even solving a long-standing problem, was especially exciting, particularly in an era where artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming scientific research. A graduate degree provides the training, the freedom and the time to investigate challenging questions with the hope that the knowledge gained will benefit all of humanity. That is what inspired me to pursue graduate studies.
Why did you decide to study at UBC?
My journey at UBC began with a fortunate coincidence in the summer of 2022, when I was matched with my current supervisor as a MITACS Globalink research intern. It turned out to be one of the best summers of my life, yielding a research project that gave me immense intellectual satisfaction.
UBC provides the perfect environment for deep scientific thinking and collaborative discussion. The campus is filled with brilliant minds, making it incredibly easy to connect and solve niche research problems with local experts, across various departments. Furthermore, Vancouver's relaxed lifestyle naturally keeps burnout at bay, while the university offers excellent opportunities to collaborate with other top-tier institutions across the city. This balance of a supportive community, top-notch resources and a healthy lifestyle creates the exact environment needed to perform high-quality research.
What is it specifically, that your program offers, that attracted you?
I was always fascinated by the field of astronomy. Being an engineer, I couldn't get the chance to explore it academically during my undergrad. My summer internship at UBC was my first exposure to being a part of a 'department of astronomy'. I really enjoyed the culture and collaborative research environment. We have a weekly 'astro lunch' on Thursdays when professors, graduate students, postdocs, etc gather to have lunch and discuss the news and updates in astronomy. We also have games and events during Christmas, trips and camps in the summer. It's the whole culture that makes me feel involved and I felt like I belong here.
Secondly, my supervisor is a part of several big telescopic collaborations, and thus, working with him would give me an opportunity to join a similar collaboration and works with the greatest minds on this planet, trying to solve a problem together.
It's a combination of the environment and the opportunities that attracted me to the program
What was the best surprise about UBC or life in Vancouver?
I’ve always been fascinated by astronomy, but coming from an engineering background, I didn't have the chance to explore it academically during my undergrad. My summer internship at UBC was my first real taste of what it's like to be part of a dedicated astronomy department, and I instantly fell in love with the culture.
The collaborative spirit here is amazing. Every Thursday, we have a weekly 'astro lunch' where professors, grads, and postdocs grab food together to chat about the latest space news and updates. Beyond the academics, there are winter holiday games, summer trips, and outreach camps. It’s this entire community culture that makes me feel genuinely involved and like I truly belong here.
On top of that, the research opportunities are incredible. My supervisor is a part of several massive telescope collaborations. Working in his group helps me collaborate with some of the brightest minds on the planet to solve fundamental problems together. Ultimately, it’s this unique mix of a welcoming, tight-knit environment and massive global research opportunities that drew me to the program.
What aspect of your graduate program do you enjoy the most or are looking forward to with the greatest curiosity?
The time and ability to dive deep into the secrets of our Universe. I used to do it as a part-time activity for fun and relaxation in the past, but I am getting to do it full-time now. I am looking forward to creating a significant impact in the discovery of strong gravitational lenses and perhaps to the overall understanding of our Universe.
What do you see as your biggest challenge(s) in your future career?
The biggest challenge in my future career is likely navigating the transition from my academic background. While I’m incredibly passionate about astronomy, my bachelor’s degree is actually in materials engineering. Because of that, I started out with fewer of the traditional fundamentals in theoretical physics and astronomy, which is something I’ve definitely noticed when discussing research with my peers.
Honestly, catching up on the textbook physics isn't the real hurdle. Anyone can learn the theory with enough reading. The bigger challenge is rewriting how I naturally approach a problem. As engineers, we're trained to focus on practical solutions: if a system works, it works, and you move forward. Physicists, on the other hand, are obsessed with the 'why.' They want to understand the underlying nature of the universe behind the problem. Breaking out of my structural 'engineer brain' and completely shifting my fundamental way of thinking is definitely a challenge, but it's one I'm actively working through.
Being in the Physics & Astronomy department is exactly what’s helping me bridge that gap. Every day, it forces me to confront the differences in how I think compared to the people around me. It acts like a mirror, helping me constantly audit my own knowledge, challenge my practical assumptions and steadily reshape my mindset into that of a true astrophysicist.
The program prepares me for this not just through coursework, but through its collaborative nature. Whether it’s getting gently grilled by a colleague during a casual chat or listening to how my supervisor approaches a problem, I am constantly learning to ask the 'why' instead of just the 'how.'
What aspects of your life or career before now have best prepared you for your UBC graduate program?
I’ve always been an inherently curious person, the kind of kid who constantly asks questions just to make sure I completely map out the flow of ideas. That relentless need to understand the 'how' and 'why' really laid the foundation for the independent thinking required in graduate school.
The other major asset is my background in data science. Having taken several courses in machine learning, statistics, and linear algebra, and applying them across multiple projects, I’m able to bring a completely different approach to my astronomical research. Because most of my peers come from traditional physics tracks, they tend to approach problems using similar frameworks. Coming at the data from a machine learning perspective allows me to introduce a unique angle to our research problems. In science, a unique approach is often where the breakthroughs happen ;)
What do you like to do for fun or relaxation?
I like to engage in practical philosophy discussions with friends or strangers aroud the city. It's always fun to listen to people's opinions on topics and realize how much it can vary depending upon one's background. On a nice weekend, I prefer hiking up the peaks of North Vancouver with friends. I also like reading non-fiction books, with Indigo Granville being my go-to place.
What advice do you have for new graduate students?
Vancouver is a big city with lots of opportunities. As grad students, work-life isn't 'balanced' as you'd hope for. There are times when it can get extremely lonely and overwhelming. It's important that we take some time out, to try and attend public meetup events and follow our hobby outside of work.
UBC offer several opportunities to help with mental, physical, financial, etc issues. It's important that we keep ourselves aware of all such opportunities and reach out. This university and city is one of the best around the worls in terms of nature and diversity. It's not very difficult to live a gold-standard life, if only, we try.
Learn more about Hrishabh's research
Strong gravitational lensing is a direct consequence of Einstein's general relativity, where light from a background source galaxy is deflected by the gravitational field of a foreground lens galaxy rather than being blocked. This deflection is because of the warpage of the local spacetime, causing distortion of the background galaxy into a ring or multiple images around the foreground system.
These strong lenses serve as critical tools for probing the spatial distribution of dark matter within the lensing galaxy while simultaneously providing magnified views of the distant, faint background source. However, detecting this phenomenon requires a precise alignment between the two galaxies. Historically, we were constrained by the limitations of the field of view and resolution of telescopes, resulting in only about a thousand confirmed strong lenses. The Euclid Space Telescope, however, is projected to scale this population to approximately one hundred thousand systems. Identifying these lenses requires searching through billions of candidate galaxies, making manual inspection unfeasible.
The Euclid Strong Lensing Science Working Group is automating this search by utilizing deep learning-based image classifiers. However, these convolutional networks are computationally expensive and lack interpretability. Furthermore, unlike generic image classification datasets, strong lenses exhibit well-defined geometric profiles that can be characterized by a compact set of features.
Zernike polynomials are a set of orthogonal polynomials traditionally developed to model wavefront aberrations in optical systems. My research uses these polynomials to extract key features from galaxy images, which are then used to train a classifier. This classifier is a lot simpler and a lot more interpretable, hoping to find galaxy-galaxy strong lenses in Euclid more efficiently.
