Rain Jha is a high school student at The British School in New Delhi, where he studies Physics, Chemistry, Math AA, English, Spanish, and Psychology within the IB curriculum. His consistent efforts in academics have been recognized by his school as he has been the recipient of the Director's Award for Academic Excellence from Grades 6 to 11. Rain is interested in learning how the universe works and to explore its mysteries through scientific research in astrophysics. He has participated in the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC) as part of NASA’s Citizen-Science project making three preliminary discoveries of asteroids. As an intern in the Department of Astrophysics and Astronomy at the Raman Research Institute (founded by Nobel Laureate C V Raman in 1948) in Bengaluru, Rain studied cosmic dawn and the 21-cm signal of neutral hydrogen. He has also studied supernovae and plotted its light and frequency curves. In June-July 2024, Rain participated in the Summer Science Program (Astrophysics) at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. (https://summerscience.org/). 

Rain has a penchant for creative writing and the imaginative worlds it conjures. The combination of these varied interests has inspired him to think creatively about the infinite possibilities opened up by the cosmos, and the creative ways in which science and literature can blend. He explores these creative realms by writing short stories, specifically within the genre of science fiction, that touch on themes of empathy and humanity, helping us understand how technology is changing our place in this world – and beyond. 

You can read some of Rain’s original short stories on the links below:

1. “The Co-Passenger”, awarded First Prize at the Elaine Hobson Literary Festival 2023 by Virtual School Australia: https://irp.cdn-website.com/0155965d/files/uploaded/2023%20VSA%20Anthology%20August%20edition.pdf 

2. “Morning”, Balloon Literary Journal, Hong Kong: https://www.balloons-lit-journal.com/issue-11.html 

3. “The Message”, Patchwork of Dreams: https://shorturl.at/sGNPT 

To get a sample of his astrophysics research, you may check out:

1. Using neural networks to plot emulations of 21-cm hydrogen signal from cosmic dawn and the epoch of reionization.  Paper based on research at the Raman Research Institute published in the Journal of Young Physicists. (https://www.journalofyoungphysicists.org/post/using-neural-networks-to-plot-emulations-of-the-sky-averaged-21-cm-signal);  

2. Estimating the Ejected Shell Mass of Nova V5668 SGR using Uniform Slab Model; under the guidance of Dr Nishchal Dwivedi, PhD (BARC), professor of physics, NMIMS. Pre-print paper published in arXiv.org. (https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.16912)