I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Astronomy, Department of Physics at Royal Holloway, University of London specializing in time-domain astronomy, working with Dr. Justyn Maund. My research focuses on supernovae (SNe), gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), and the electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave events. At RHUL, my research emphasizes investigating the environments and progenitors of supernovae, along with their ejecta morphology. By utilizing simulations, observations from facilities like the Hubble Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope, and Machine Learning techniques, I aim to deepen our understanding of these cosmic explosions. I also actively contribute to the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) project, which is a state-of-the-art facility for identifying optical counterparts to gravitational waves, tracking afterglows of poorly localized GRBs, and observing infant supernovae and other fast-evolving transients.

I am currently involved in the following international collaborations:

• Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO): identifying the optical counterparts to gravitational wave events.
• Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects (PESSTO): Classification and Spectroscopic follow-up of transient objects.
• Electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave sources at the Very Large Telescope (ENGRAVE): Focuses on multi-wavelength follow-up of GW events.
• StarGate: Hunting for the most exotic gamma-ray bursts: New insights into the transient Universe with VLT
• Legacy Survey of Space and Time - Transients and Variable Stars (LSST-TVS): Exploring time-domain transients with the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

• Supernovae and Gamma-ray bursts.
• Electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave events
• Magnetars and their role in powering different types of transients
• Machine learning applications in astronomy
• Instrumentation: Characterization of GOTO Imagers, data quality assurance, and hardware performance tracking

Selected publications:

• Amit Kumar 2025, New Astronomy, 116, 1384; Insights from Modelling Magnetar-driven Light Curves of Stripped-envelope Supernovae
• Amit Kumar, Raya Dastidar, Justyn R. Maund, et al., 2025, MNRAS, 538, 659K, Signatures of the Shock Interaction as an Additional Power Source in the Nebular Spectra of SN 2023ixf.
• Amit Kumar and Kaushal Sharma, 2024, arXiv:2411.13242, Light Curve Properties of Gamma-Ray Burst Associated Supernovae
• Amit Kumar et al. 2024, MNRAS, 531, 3297 Magnetars as Powering Sources of Gamma-Ray Burst Associated Supernovae and Unsupervised Clustering of Cosmic Explosions
• Amit Kumar, 2023, PhD Thesis, Energetic Cosmic Transients In The Context of Gamma-Ray Bursts Supernovae Connections
• S. B. Pandey and Amit Kumar et al. 2023, JAI, 12, 2240009 4Kx4K CCD Imager for the 3.6m DOT: Recent up-gradations and results
• Amit Kumar et al. 2022, New Astronomy, 97, 101889 Tale of GRB171010A/SN2017htp and GRB171205A/SN2017iuk: Magnetar origin?
• Amit Kumar et al. 2022, JApA, 43, 27 Photometric calibration and characterization of the 4Kx4K CCD Imager, the first-light axial port instrument for the 3.6m DOT
• S. B. Pandey and Amit Kumar et al. 2022, MNRAS, 507, 1229-1253 Photometric, polarimetric, and spectroscopic studies of the luminous, slow-decaying Type Ib SN 2012au
• Amit Kumar et al. 2021, MNRAS, 502, 1678-1693 SN 2020ank: a bright and fast-evolving H-deficient superluminous supernova
• Amit Kumar et al. 2020, ApJ, 892, 28 SN 2010kd: Photometric and Spectroscopic Analysis of a Slow-decaying Superluminous Supernova
• Troja, E.; Fryer, C. F.;  O’Connor, B.; Ryan, G.; Dichiara, S.; Amit Kumar et al. 2022, Nature, 612, 228 A long gamma-ray burst from a stellar merger in the nearby Universe

My Other Scientific Reports:

Transient Name Server (TNS) Reports: Submitted reports showcasing newly discovered transients using the GOTO.

General Coordinates Network (GCN) Circulars.

ePESSTO+ Transient Classification Reports

GOTO-FAST spectroscopic classifications of optical transients.

Full list of publications:

Please visit my Google Scholar or ORCID pages for a complete list of my publications.