Campus Directory

Dhanesh Krishnarao

he/him/his

Assistant Professor

Physics

Dhanesh Krishnarao (DK) joined Colorado College in 2022 and holds a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2020) - specializing in understanding gas in galaxies and bridging our understanding of the Milky Way with that of a large sample of other galaxies. Now, DK focuses on studying how gas in galaxies is ionized, heated, and maintained in large quantities through observations of absorption and emission lines across many wavelengths.

DK is also a member of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey's fifth iteration (SDSS-V), and leads the Faculty and Student Teams (FAST) initiative, which has sought to attract and retain talented and historically marginalized undergraduate students and faculty within the SDSS collaboration since 2015. FAST forges partnerships where faculty and students at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) are partnered with SDSS Ambassadors at well-resourced R1 universities and Research Institutes to engage directly with proprietary SDSS-V observations and benefit from long-lasting, sustainable collaborations.

In the classroom, DK prioritizes student self-reflection and growth as a means to assess understanding and work towards mastery. As a Crown Center Faculty Fellow in the 2024-2025 academic year, DK will lead a project on Alternative Assessment Strategies in STEM to discuss, develop, implement, and assess the effectiveness of different styles of formative assessments on the Block Plan.