About
me
I’m an automation engineer at SLAC, a former accelerator operator and astrophysics graduate researcher, a husband and dad, and the keyboard player in Wicked Harmony.
I grew up in Kathmandu.
I was a quiet child and did not have a clear idea of what I wanted to become. In fourth grade, my dad brought home a book about the lives of stars—their formation, long evolution, and eventual collapse. That was my first sustained interest in physics.
I later studied physics in Nepal. Kathmandu’s mix of crowded streets, old temples, surrounding hills, and the Himalayas is still the visual background I associate with home.
Undergraduate physics in Nepal.
During an electricity and magnetism course, some friends and I decided to build a Tesla coil. It took repeated failures before it worked. When it finally lit a bulb wirelessly, we entered it in a competition and won first prize.
My undergraduate research moved through atmospheric physics, very-low-frequency radio waves, and infrared observations of nebular structures. MATLAB introduced me to programming; Python quickly became the tool I preferred for analysis and visualization.
Graduate school in the United States.
At UMBC, I completed my master’s degree in physics. My graduate research followed four years of X-ray and ultraviolet observations of the active galaxy 1ES 1927+654, whose X-ray corona disappeared and later recovered after an unusual eruption.
I entered a PhD program but chose to leave after taking my master’s. The research remained important: it became part of an international collaboration published in The Astrophysical Journal.
Accelerator operations and automation at SLAC.
After the master’s, I joined SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory as an accelerator systems operator. Operating the machine gave me a practical view of how controls, software, hardware, procedures, and people interact during real beam operations.
I later moved into automation engineering in the safety systems group. Today I take Personnel Protection System changes through requirements, PLC programming, electrical design, testing, troubleshooting, commissioning, documentation, and configuration control.
Family, music, and life outside work.
I’m a husband to Parikshya, a U.S. Army veteran, and a dad to our daughter, Aria. My family is the part of my life around which the rest is arranged.
I also play keys with Wicked Harmony. I sing, write songs, and play guitar and piano outside the band. Recently I built the audio-reactive visual system we use at shows, which is one of the places where music and software overlap for me.
