Hallo! My name is Shalini (sha-lih-nee) and I am an astrophysicist living and working in Heidelberg, Germany this year. I'm so excited to share my journey with you, the culture, food and sights of the city—and even teach you a little bit about outer space too!
I grew up in a small and quiet suburb in New Jersey with my parents and two sisters. As a kid, I loved to read books about fairies, people, far-away places and science. My dad would always take my sisters and I to the Natural History Museum in New York City, where the space exhibit was like a playground to me. Whenever I looked up in the dark planetarium, I felt like I was floating in the stars. This was when my curiosity for astronomy began!
I wanted to see and discover the world—the universe—that I read about in books. After high school, I went across the U.S.A. to go to college at Caltech, in California. I studied Astrophysics and English so that I could learn about stars and galaxies. Now I can write about those topics for students like you!
Traveling to a new place is always a bit like going to a different planet. Now, I am writing from Heidelberg, an old and beautiful city with a ruined castle, a river and an observatory at the top of the mountain.
