Black Hole Explorer (BHEX) signal processing and instrument control electronics

Ranjani Srinivasan is the Director of Central Engineering at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Ranjani began her professional career at the Hawaii office of the Academia Sinica Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics. She became deeply involved in instrument development for several major observatories, including the Submillimeter Array (SMA), the YT Lee Array (YTLA), the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), and the Greenland Telescope (GLT). Ranjani later joined SAO, where she initially led backend electronics development for the next-generation Event Horizon Telescope (ngEHT), one of SAO’s flagship projects. In addition to her leadership responsibilities, she currently serves as the lead engineer for the backend signal processing subsystem of the Black Hole Explorer (BHEx). She was also part of the international team that captured the first image of a black hole, an achievement that was honored with the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.