Programme Schedule
Venue: Bhaskara 3 Auditorium, IUCAA
Day 1: Monday – 24 November 2025 | ||
09:00 – 09:15 | Registration for participants staying outside IUCAA | |
09:15 – 09:25 | SOC/LOC | Welcome |
09:25 – 09:40 | Prof. R. Srianand | Remarks by IUCAA Director |
Session 1: Stellar variability across the HR diagram (Chair: Marina Rejkuba) | ||
09:40 – 10:10 | Richard Anderson (Review) | Gaia revolution for variability studies |
10:10 – 10:40 | Márcio Catelan (Invited) | Overview of the ALeRCE Broker |
10:40 – 11:00 | Marek Skarka | Challenges and Pitfalls in the Classification of Variable Stars |
11:00 – 11:30 | Morning Coffee | |
Stellar variability across the HR diagram (Chair: Ajit Kembhavi) | ||
11:30 – 12:00 | László Molnár (Invited) | High-precision space photometry of classical pulsating stars: lessons learned and future potentials |
12:00 – 12:20 | Kailash Sahu | Ellipsoidal Variables in the SWEEPS Field |
12:20 – 12:40 | Ashish Mahabal | Detection of Stellar Variability and Anomalies in Sky Surveys Aided by Machine Learning |
12:40 – 13:00 | Nitesh Kumar | Extraction of Physical Parameters of RRab Variables using Neural Network based Interpolator |
13:00 – 14:20 | Lunch | |
Session 2: Stellar variability across the HR diagram (Chair: H. P. Singh) | ||
14:20 – 14:50 | Gisella Clementini (Review) | The gold mine of Gaia pulsating variables |
14:50 – 15:10 | Mauricio Cruz Reyes | Variable stars in clusters |
15:10 – 15:30 | Prasad Mani | Delta Scuti oscillations - How low can they go? |
15:30 – 16:00 | ~10 presenters | Poster session P01-P10: Flash talks |
16:00 – 16:30 | Afternoon Coffee + Snacks | |
Stellar variability across the HR diagram (Chair: D. K. Ojha) | ||
16:30 – 17:00 | Joe P. Ninan (Review) | Variability as a tool to study star and planet formation |
17:00 – 17:20 | Viraj Karambelkar | Populations of R Coronae Borealis stars and other dusty variables revealed by infrared searches |
17:20 – 17:40 | Anuroop Dasgupta | Crumbling Disks and Rising Worlds in V960 Mon Reveal Gravitational Instability at Work |
17:40 – 18:00 | Holly Stokes-Geddes | Characterising Stochastic Stellar Variability with PCA: Insights from HOYS Light Curves |
18:00 -- 19:00 | Poster Viewing and IUCAA Tour | |
19:00 – 21:30 | Welcome Dinner at IUCAA | |
Day 2: Tuesday – 25 November 2025 | ||
Session 3: Stellar evolution and pulsation physics, stellar models (Chair: Jeewan Pandey) | ||
09:30 – 10:00 | Marcella Marconi (Review) | Stellar pulsation physics and modelling |
10:00 – 10:20 | Alexandre Gallenne | Precise dynamical mass measurements of Galactic Binary Cepheids |
10:20 – 10:40 | Rajeev Singh Rathour | Period Change Complexity in Classical Cepheids |
10:40 – 11:00 | Bhawna Mukhija | Giant Eruption and Accretion in Massive Stars and Their effects on the Stellar Structure |
11:00 – 11:30 | Morning Coffee | |
Stellar evolution and pulsation physics, stellar models (Chair: Nishant Singh) | ||
11:30 – 12:00 | Radoslaw Smolec (Invited) | Challenges in evolution and pulsation of Cepheids through the MESA eyepiece |
12:00 – 12:20 | Mami Deka | Modeling LMC Cepheid Light Curves: Predictions from MESA-RSP Versus Stellingwerf’s Code |
12:20 – 12:40 | Susmita Das | Towards an updated theoretical framework for BL Herculis Stars |
12:40 – 13:00 | Erasmo Trentin | Unveiling the Chemical Secrets of Anomalous Cepheids: Insights from High-Resolution Spectroscopy |
13:00 – 14:20 | Lunch | |
Session 4: Stellar evolution and pulsation physics, stellar models (Chair: Matteo Moneli) | ||
14:20 – 14:40 | Abdollahi Mahdi | Radius Tracing from Mid-IR Light Curve Derivatives: A New Distance Estimation Technique for Cepheids |
14:40 – 15:00 | Anwesh Kumar Mishra | A sample of sub-luminous type-II cepheids in OGLE and GAIA: indicators of gravo-nuclear loops? |
15:00 – 15:20 | Nipun Ghanghas | From Kepler to PLATO: ML-Based Asteroseismic Inference Across Stellar Populations |
15:20 – 16:00 | ~12 presenters | Poster session 2: P11 – P22: Flash talks |
16:00 – 16:30 | Afternoon Coffee | |
Session 4: Stellar evolution and pulsation physics, stellar models (Chair: Jessy Jose) | ||
16:30 – 17:00 | Amanda Karakas (Invited) | Theoretical models of asymptotic giant branch stars |
17:00 – 17:20 | Yoshiya Mori | Constraining mixing in asymptotic giant branch stars using stellar pulsation |
17:20 – 17:40 | Csilla Kalup | Mass Loss in the Metal-Poor Regime: Asteroseismic Masses of Red Giants in Globular Cluster NGC 5897 |
17:40 – 18:00 | Emese Plachy | Unveiling hidden pulsation modes in Galactic first overtone Cepheids with TESS |
18:00 -- | Evening snacks and Poster Viewing | |
Day 3: Wednesday – 26 November 2025 | ||
Session 5: Extrinsic Variables (Chair: Annapurni Subramaniam) | ||
09:30 – 10:00 | Grzegorz Pietrzyński (Invited) | Eclipsing binaries and Cerro Murphy Observatory |
10:00 – 10:20 | Amadeusz Miszuda | Pulsational characteristics of mass accreting stars in close binary systems |
10:20 – 10:40 | Prajwel Joseph | Revealit: Uncovering variable sources in UVIT data |
10:40 – 11:00 | Giordano Viviani | The VELOCE Project: First Data Release, Key Findings, and Future Directions |
11:00 – 11:30 | Morning Coffee | |
Extrinsic Variables (Chair: Dipanjan Mukherjee) | ||
11:30 – 12:00 | Aru Beri (Invited) | X-ray binaries |
12:00 – 12:20 | Nikita Rawat | Cataclysmic Variables from the Mobile Astronomical System of TElescope Robots network |
12:20 – 12:40 | Jeewan Pandey | Short- and long- term X-ray variability of active fast rotator AB Dor |
12:40 – 13:00 | ~8 presenters | Poster session 3: P22 – P30: Flash talks |
13:00 – 14:20 | Lunch | |
Session 6: Star clusters and variable stars (Chair: Vincenzo Ripepi) | ||
14:20 – 14:50 | Annapurni Subramaniam (Invited) | Two surveys of Galactic star clusters (UOCS and GlobULeS) using AstroSat - highlights and insights |
14:50 – 15:10 | Emanuela Luongo | Building on the Past: A New Approach to the Oosterhoff Dichotomy with RR Lyrae |
15:10 – 15:30 | Prashant Nishad | NIR Census of RR Lyrae stars & Horizontal Branch Morphology in Globular Clusters |
15:30 – 15:50 | Joseph Mullen | A NUV Analysis of RR Lyrae: Leveraging Archival Data and Preparing for Future Surveys |
15:50 – 16:30 | Afternoon Coffee | |
16:25 – 16:30 | Conference Photo | |
Book Launch (Chair: Shashi Kanbur) | ||
16:30 – 17:15 | Book Launch | The Magical Wonders of the Night Sky (Translation of a popular astronomy book in 1931 by Prof. T. M. Patil) |
17:15 - 17:30 | B S Shylaja | Search for star names and their identification from India |
17:30 – 18:00 | Posters viewing and the vote for the best poster award | |
19:00 – 23:00 | Conference Dinner | |
Day 4: Thursday – 27 November 2025 | ||
Session 7: Period-Luminosity Relations & Distance Scale (Chair: Róbert Szabó) | ||
09:30 – 10:00 | Barry Madore (Review) | Cepheids, Thermally-Pulsing AGB Stars and RR Lyrae Variables: Cornerstones to the E/G Distance Scale |
10:00 – 10:20 | Vincenzo Ripepi | Cepheids, Metallicity, and the Distance Ladder: A Reassessment from the C-MetaLL Survey |
10:00 – 10:40 | Bastian Lengen | Joint Calibration of RR Lyrae and Type-II Cepheids in Galactic Globular Clusters |
10:40 – 11:00 | Teresa Sicignano | Type II and Anomalous Cepheids as Independent Distance Indicators in the Local Universe |
11:00 – 11:30 | Morning Coffee | |
Period-Luminosity Relations & Distance Scale (Chair: Sanjit Mitra) | ||
11:30 – 12:00 | Richard Anderson (Invited) | The Local Distance Network and its implications for the Hubble constant |
12:00 – 12:30 | Caroline Huang (Invited) | Using Mira Variables for Cosmological Distance Measurements |
12:30 – 12:50 | Kumar Pranshu | A survey of variable stars and outburst events with the 4- m ILMT |
12:50 – 13:00 | POSTER AWARD ANNOUNCEMENT 5 min presentation by the winner (Ayush Moharana) | |
13:00 – 14:20 | Lunch + IAU Junior Members WG Lunch with a Mentor Event (Chair: Susmita Das) | |
Session 8: Variables as tracers of stellar populations and galaxies structures (Chair: C. Maitra) | ||
14:20 – 14:50 | Dorota Skowron (Review) | Structure and history of the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds |
14:50 – 15:10 | Ronald Drimmel | Mapping the Milky Way with Classical Cepheids |
15:10 – 15:40 | Gustavo Medina (invited) | The spectroscopic variation of RR Lyrae stars in the DESI survey |
15:40 – 16:00 | Shourya Khanna | Exploring disc kinematics, substructure & orbits with Milky Way Cepheids |
16:00 – 16:30 | Afternoon Coffee + Snacks | |
Variables as tracers of stellar populations and galaxies structures (Chair: Susmita Das) | ||
16:30 – 17:00 | Andrea Kunder (invited) | RR Lyrae stars as tracers of bulge globular clusters and accretion remnants |
17:00 – 17:20 | Massimo Marengo | Variable Stars as Probes of Star Formation and Chemical Evolution of Galaxies |
17:20 – 17:40 | Matteo Monelli | Tracing the Local Group evolution with resolved stellar populations |
18:00 -- | Public Talk by Róbert Szabó (Chandrasekhar Auditorium, IUCAA) | |
Day 5: Friday – 28 November 2025 | ||
Session 9: Surveys, observing facilities and future of variable stars studies (Chair: A. N. Ramaprakash) | ||
09:30 – 10:00 | Stanimir Metchev (Invited) | Variability Science with the Thirty Meter Telescope |
10:00 – 10:30 | Saurabh Sharma (Invited) | Indian Observing Facilities |
10:30 – 10:50 | Manuel Sánchez Benavente | Towards self-consistent PLZ relations for RR Lyrae Stars |
10:50 – 11:10 | Gourav Banerjee | A new online spectral database for variable classical Be stars using the 1-m CZT facility at Kavalur |
11:10 – 11:30 | Morning Coffee | |
Surveys, observing facilities and future of variable stars studies (Chair: Surhud More) | ||
11:30 – 12:00 | Kathy Vivas (Invited) | Rubin Observatory’s LSST as a large-scale photometric variability survey |
12:00 – 12:20 | Nicolás Cristi | Preparing for Mira spectra in Gaia DR4: Improving the GSP-Spec pipeline in the cold giants domain |
12:20 – 12:40 | Ilaria Musella | Ultra-long-period Cepheids as Standard Candles from Gaia to Rubin-LSST |
12:40 – 13:00 | SOC/LOC | Concluding Remarks |
Lunch and End of the Conference | ||
Posters | |||
P01 | Sabour | Mohamed | Photometric Analysis of the Two Delta Scuti Stars |
P02 | Sharma | Rahul | Unraveling the Multi-Timescale Variability of the Magnetic Cataclysmic Variable |
P03 | Shah | Priya | An updated catalogue variable stars in open cluster fields |
P04 | Bhattacharya | Shatanik | Peak Bagging of red-giant oscillation spectra using Reinforcement Learning |
P05 | Tripathi | Apara | Variability Analysis of the stars in open cluster King 6 using TESS light curve |
P06 | Jaiswal | Ranjana | Searching and Characterising Variable Stars in Open Cluster NGC 2129. |
P07 | Ghosh | Samrat | Dynamic Photometric Variability in Young Brown Dwarfs in Taurus with TESS |
P08 | Bhuyan | Gautam | Quantifying the metallicity effect based on the phase-dependent properties of classical Cepheids |
P09 | Nedhath Divakaran | Sneha | Eclipsing and contact binaries in star clusters: Insights from the Stetson database |
P10 | Baruah | Anurag | UV flux variation study in contact binary VW Cephei |
P11 | Molnár | László | The first high-precision photometric light curve of Antares, the twin of Betelgeuse |
P12 | Bhure | Sakhee | Stellar Variability and Exoplanet Synergies: Precision Photometry of Earth-Neptune-sized Planets |
P13 | Moharana | Ayush | Insights into tidally perturbed Beta Cephei stars using eclipsing binaries |
P14 | Dileep | Athul | Photometric and Spectral variability in Ap star HD 100357. |
P15 | Dasgupta | Subharthi | Variabilities and pulsations in the B supergiant Epsilon Ori (HD37128) |
P16 | De Cat | Peter | Unveiling stellar multiplicity: high-resolution spectroscopic follow-up of LAMOST discoveries |
P17 | Bhattacharyya | Suman | A Time-Domain Portrait of Be-Star Disks: Tracking Disk Evolution in Be Stars Across Three Decades |
P18 | Sharma | Karan | Variable stars in the UV: results from observations with UVIT onboard AstroSat |
P19 | Sarmah | Snigdha | Pre-Explosion Variability and the Period-Luminosity Relation of Type II Supernova Progenitors |
P20 | Biswas | Ayan | Spectropolarimetric and Photometric Variability Study of the Doubly-Magnetic Massive Binary eps Lupi |
P21 | Chand | Tarak | The study of young, low-mass pre-main sequence star V1180 Cas |
P22 | Hazarika | Debasish | Period-Luminosity Relations of Magellanic Cloud Classical Cepheids in 12 S-PLUS bands |
P23 | Vinay Kumar | G | Probing Hot Subdwarf B Binaries: Pulsations, Parameters, and Evolution. |
P24 | Grankina | Aija | Spectroscopic Variability of Proto-planetary Nebula IRAS 22272+5435 |
P25 | Yadav | Abhay Pratap | Short-term variability of Wolf-Rayet stars |
P26 | Palakkatharappil | Dinil Bose | Seismic and Rotational Characterisation of Stars using Multi-Sector TESS data |
P27 | P | Akash | C-J Type Carbon Stars: Kinematics, Chemical properties and variability |
P28 | Pawar | Tilaksingh | Pulsating stars in eclipsing binary systems |
P29 | Arghya | Chakraborty | Exploring variability in NGC 7419: An open cluster rich in super giants and Be type stars |