Exploring the life of binary stars
Since September 2022, astrophysicist Rajika Kuruwita has been the first fellow of the HITS Independent Postdoc Program. The program offers an opportunity for highly talented young scientists wanting to transition from PhD student to junior group leader. The next opening will be in 2023.
Born in Sri Lanka, Rajika completed her PhD at the Australian National University, where she focused on the formation and evolution of discs in binary star systems.
Before she joined HITS, she was a fellow at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. There she investigated protostellar multiplicity statistics using star cluster formation simulations. Her current work continues to look at multiple star formation, particular accretion in young stars and spin up of binary components. She is collaborating closely with the Stellar Evolution Theory group (SET).
About HITS
The Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS) was established in 2010 by the physicist and SAP co-founder Klaus Tschira (1940-2015) and the Klaus Tschira Foundation as a private, non-profit research institute. HITS conducts basic research in the natural sciences, mathematics and computer science, with a focus on the processing, structuring, and analyzing of large amounts of complex data and the development of computational methods and software. The research fields range from molecular biology to astrophysics. The shareholders of HITS are the HITS-Stiftung, which is a subsidiary of the Klaus Tschira Foundation, Heidelberg University and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). HITS also cooperates with other universities and research institutes and with industrial partners. The base funding of HITS is provided by the HITS Stiftung with funds received from the Klaus Tschira Foundation. The primary external funding agencies are the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the German Research Foundation (DFG), and the European Union.
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