Ramya Manjunath Anche now leads NASA $20 million PUFFINS mission
Technology
Ramya Manjunath Anche, who grew up near Bengaluru, is now leading NASA's $20 million PUFFINS telescope mission.
This project, funded in October 2026 and aiming for a 2030 launch, will use a special ultraviolet telescope to study interstellar dust, tiny particles that shape how light travels through space.
Ramya Manjunath Anche leads 40 researchers
Inspired early on by her father's science background, Anche first studied engineering before switching to astrophysics after the Columbia disaster moved her.
She joined the Indian Institute of Astrophysics for an integrated MTech-PhD program in astronomical instrumentation and later joined the University of Arizona in 2021.
Now heading a team of 40 researchers, she's helping unlock secrets about how stars and planets form.