Raja GuhaThakurta

University of California Santa Cruz

Raja GuhaThakurta is a Distinguished Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California Santa Cruz, He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University, completed postdoctoral stints at the Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton University, and was an Assistant Astronomer at Space Telescope Science Institute, before joining the UCSC faculty over three decades ago. He served as the Department Chair from 2019–2023. GuhaThakurta studies the resolved stellar populations of nearby galaxies. He is the founder and faculty director of Creating Equity in STEAM which includes three experiential learning programs. He was awarded the AAS Education Prize in 2025.