Shanil Virani
As the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s Cosmic Engagement Specialist, I work at the intersection of astrophysics, education, and storytelling, helping communities reconnect with the night sky and with the long human tradition of seeking meaning in the cosmos.
I am an award-winning astronomer and science communicator whose career spans frontline research and public engagement. I completed my graduate work in astrophysics at Yale University, where I studied supermassive black holes in the nearby and distant universe. Before Yale, I spent more than five years at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics on the Science Team of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. My contributions to the mission earned seven NASA and Smithsonian group achievement commendations, and I received the Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Award from the American Astronomical Society for exemplary graduate research. I was later appointed a Solar System Ambassador by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
My work now centers on expanding public access to astronomy—scientifically, culturally, and emotionally. I created and host Our Island Universe, a storytelling platform that explores how discoveries “up there” shape our lives “down here,” and I am co-author of Daughter of the Stars, an astro-photography book about light pollution and what we lose when we lose the night.
I also write about the search for meaning in the cosmos on Substack and Medium, exploring astronomy as both a scientific endeavor and a philosophical inheritance. My guiding principle there is simple: Seeking wonder in the stars — and meaning beneath them. Science is our light in the dark. These essays explore how skywatching shapes identity, memory, belonging, and our ongoing quest to understand who we are in a vast and evolving universe.
At the ASP, I spearheaded a new workshop series that empowers smart-telescope owners to move beyond imaging and into understanding — teaching participants how to interpret their own data, connect images to astrophysical meaning, and see the sky not merely as a spectacle but as a story they can read. We have witnessed firsthand how transformative it is when people gain the ability to look at their smart-scope data and truly understand what they’re seeing.
I believe astronomy is not only a scientific pursuit but a cultural inheritance — a way of seeing ourselves, our histories, and our futures within a cosmic landscape. Join me as we explore the cosmos not just as scientists, but as storytellers. We began as explorers. We are explorers still.
