Presenting Our 2026 Speakers…Jillian Rastinejad

Meet our 2026 Symposium speaker, Dr. Jillian Rastinejad! Join us for an electrifying exploration of gamma-ray bursts — the brightest explosions in the high-energy sky — and discover how these fleeting flashes reveal the origins of heavy elements and the most violent events in our Universe. 🌌✨

📅 6th March, 6:30–10:30PM

📍 MC102 (Mechanical Engineering Building, 5 King’s College Road)

Speaker Biography: Jillian Rastinejad is a NASA Einstein Fellow at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received her bachelor’s degree in physics and human rights from the University of Connecticut in 2019 and her PhD in astronomy from Northwestern University in 2025 under the supervision of Prof. Wen-fai Fong. Her research focuses on gamma-ray bursts and compact object mergers, challenging long-standing paradigms of high-energy signals and revealing that the signatures of heavy element formation are more diverse than previously understood. She has led rapid-response observing programs on the Hubble Space Telescope, the Gemini Observatories, and Keck Observatory, following up on alerts from NASA satellites to pinpoint new cosmic explosions. Outside of research, she enjoys running, hiking, experimenting in the kitchen, and exploring Washington, D.C.