When Garima Rajguru was 8 or 9, a picture book about space had a footnote about black holes.
“The only thing it said was that black holes are regions in space from where even light cannot escape,” she recalled.
The explanation was brief, but it made an impression on her.
Years later, Rajguru is a doctoral candidate at Clemson University studying light from distant galaxies powered by supermassive black holes. Her scientific journey from a picture book to the study of objects billions of light-years from Earth has now brought her a 2026 Amelia Earhart Fellowship from Zonta International.
Rajguru is one of 30 women worldwide selected for the fellowship. Each fellow receives $10,000 to support doctoral work in aerospace engineering or space sciences. Rajguru plans to use the funding, in addition to institutional grants, to support her explorative doctoral research and advance her scientific career.
Bright blazars
Her research focuses on blazars, among the most luminous objects astronomers can observe.
A supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy pulls in nearby gas. Before that matter disappears into the black hole, it forms a hot, bright disk. Some systems also launch two jets of particles in opposite directions at speeds approaching the speed of light. When one of those jets is pointed nearly toward Earth, the system is called a blazar.
“Since these objects are very luminous, we can see them much farther away in space,” Rajguru said. “Since we are looking much farther away in space, it also means we are looking much farther away in time.”
High-energy astrophysics
Working with Clemson Physics and Astronomy Professor Marco Ajello and other collaborators, Rajguru uses catalogs from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to examine how blazars are distributed across the universe. She studies whether their numbers or brightness changed over cosmic history and what those changes reveal about their effects on the high-energy gamma-ray sky.
Ajello’s group specializes in high-energy astrophysics and uses Fermi and other space-based instruments to study blazars, active galactic nuclei and the evolution of massive black holes and galaxies.
“I am incredibly proud of Garima and all that she has accomplished during her time at Clemson,” Ajello said. “This fellowship is a well-deserved recognition of her outstanding scientific achievements, her dedication to research and her commitment to mentoring others. I am excited to see where this recognition will take her, and I have no doubt that she will continue to make significant contributions to our understanding of the universe.”
Rajguru’s path to Clemson began in India. In high school, she began reading books by Stephen Hawking. She studied physics at Bethune College in India and sought out public astronomy lectures because that subject was not part of her core coursework. She continued into a master’s program in physics at Presidency University, where she completed specialized work in astrophysics. Her master’s thesis involved blazars and cited Ajello’s research.
“One day I was seeing his name in a paper that I was citing,” said Rajguru, who began studying at Clemson in 2022. “Then another day I was working with him, sitting in the same room and discussing science.”
Rajguru credited Ajello, her other mentors, her collaborators and her parents with helping her reach this point.
“I am surrounded by a very supportive group of people,” she said. “The fellowship is a testimony to the hard work that we put in and also the support that I received.”
Meaningful honor
Rajguru said receiving a fellowship named after Earhart made the honor even more meaningful.
“Just as Amelia Earhart’s solo transatlantic flight bridged two continents, I aspire to bridge the gap between scientific communities, in my own little way, between countries,” she said.
Zonta established the fellowship in 1938 in honor of Earhart, who was a member of the organization. It has since awarded more than $12.2 million through 1,794 fellowships to 1,365 women from 80 countries. The program is open to women of any nationality who meet its doctoral-study and research requirements.
Rajguru is the first recipient from Clemson.
In addition to her research, Rajguru mentors two high school students. She also has presented programs at the Clemson planetarium and participated in public astronomy events, including the department’s 2024 partial solar eclipse program.
She intends to continue to conduct outreach after earning her doctorate. Her plans include a postdoctoral position, followed by a career in academia.
Rajguru said the fellowship has increased her determination to encourage women and girls to pursue STEM careers.
