Areas of Interest: Astronomical Polarimetry, Optical Design and Analysis, High Contrast Imaging, Space Telescopes, SmallSats, Large Segmented Ground-Based Telescopes

Dr. Ramya Anche is the Principal Investigator of PUFFINS, a NASA Astrophysics Pioneers mission that will perform ultraviolet spectropolarimetric observations of nearby stars. She also co-leads the polarimetry working group for the Coronagraph Instrument on NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, where she guides observation planning and calibration strategies.

Dr. Anche joined Steward Observatory in late 2021 as a postdoc, working with Prof. Ewan Douglas on polarimetry for the Roman Coronagraph and on SCoOB, the University of Arizona's high-contrast imaging testbed. She earned her PhD at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, where she developed polarimetric models that laid the groundwork for a spectropolarimetric and high contrast imaging concept for the Thirty Meter Telescope.

Her research focuses on advancing instrumentation — particularly polarimetry and high contrast imaging — for next-generation ground- and space-based observatories.