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Adam Zacharia Anil

adamandspace@gmail.com · adamanil@mit.edu · adamzacharia.com

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram

Research Interests

Multi-messenger Astrophysics, Gravitational-Wave Astronomy, Scientific Machine Learning (SciML), Autonomous AI Agents, Large Language Models (LLMs), Radio Interferometry, AI-Based Sensing & Control, Computational Astrophysics

Research Experience

Quasar | Project2025

NRAO × CosmicAIRemote

Under the guidance of Dr Adele L. Plunkett, NRAO
Developing an autonomous agent in collaboration with CosmicAI that leverages Large Language Models (LLMs), designed to allow researchers to query NRAO archives using natural language. The agent parses these prompts to autonomously retrieve data and execute subsequent analysis routines without manual coding.

Artemis Lab | Internship2025

Observatoire de la Côte d'AzurFrance

Under the guidance of Dr Eleonora Polini, Artemis Lab
Principal Investigator — Dr Frédéric Cleva, Artemis Lab
My research focuses on classification and ranking of coherent stray light sources in VIRGO optical benches.

MIT LIGO | Master Thesis2025

MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space ResearchUSA

Under the guidance of Dr Nikhil Mukund, MIT
Principal Investigator — Dr Lisa Barsotti, Senior Research Scientist, MIT
My research focuses on developing techniques to maintain the optimal performance of optical systems over extended periods using AI.

MIT LIGO | Internship2024

MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space ResearchUSA

Under the guidance of Dr Nikhil Mukund, MIT
Principal Investigator — Dr Peter Fritschel, Associate Director for LIGO-MIT
AI-based sensing and control for Advanced LIGO and LLM-based optical simulations.

Daksha | Minor Project2024

IISER Thiruvananthapuram × IIT-BIndia

With Dr Shabnam Iyyani, IISER Thiruvananthapuram
Replicating and assessing Daksha's ability to search for thermal emissions in Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) data.

SEDMv2 | Internship2023

University of Minnesota × CaltechUSA

With Dr Michael Coughlin (Project Scientist SEDMv2), University of Minnesota
Principal Investigator — Shrinivas R. (Shri) Kulkarni, Caltech
Aid in the automated reduction / fitting pipelines to rapidly and photometrically identify specific types of transients, e.g., rare transients like kilonovae.

Correlation Function Analysis | Internship2023

HSF-IndiaIndia

With Dr Brij Kishor Jashal (Project Scientist) and Dr Archana Radhakrishnan, TIFR
Principal Investigator — David Lange, Princeton University
Develop a generic software layer on top of existing frameworks to perform fits and solve systems of equations to get multiple form factors from three-point correlation functions in lattice QCD.

Search For Kilonova | Internship2022

IISER ThiruvananthapuramIndia

With Dr Shabnam Iyyani, IISER Thiruvananthapuram
Exploring uncataloged transient optical data to identify and compare its properties with the expected characteristics of Kilonova emission.

Publications & Talks

Anil, A. Z., Plunkett, A., Mason, B., & Offner, S. (2026, June 29). Quasar: An AI-Powered Research Assistant for Astronomy Archive Workflows. 2026 Conference on Physics and AI (PAI 2026), Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21014733

Education

IISER Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala — Integrated MS2020 – Present

Major: Physics · Minor: Data Science

TKM Centenary Public School, Kerala — Higher Secondary (Grade 12)2020

Percentage: 93 · Subjects: Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics

TKM Centenary Public School, Kerala — Secondary (Grade 10)2018

GPA: 10

Computer Skills

ProgrammingPython (NumPy, Astropy, SciPy, Pandas) · C · Interferometer simulation — Finesse, OSCARDesigningAdobe InDesign · Adobe Illustrator · Adobe Photoshop

Other Interests

Digital Art · Music · Football · Computer Hardware · Photography

References

1. Dr. Shabnam IyyaniAssistant ProfessorSchool of PhysicsIISER, Kerala, Indiashabnam@iisertvm.ac.in

2. Dr. Adele L. PlunkettScientistALMA Science CenterNRAO, Virginia, USAaplunket@nrao.edu

3. Dr. Lisa BarsottiSenior Research ScientistMIT Kavli — LIGO LaboratoryMIT, Massachusetts, USAlisabar@ligo.mit.edu