Anmol Sikka

I am a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, working with Prof. Christine Hartzell. I completed my PhD in Aerospace Engineering at UMD (2026), where my dissertation focused on the role of magnetic cohesion in asteroid regolith using the Discrete Element Method (DEM) and LIGGGHTS — an open-source computational framework supporting scientific objectives for NASA's Psyche mission. My current postdoctoral research focuses on DEM modeling of magnetic granular avalanches on asteroid (16) Psyche and quantifying plasma wave detection architectures for orbital debris in LEO.

Before diving deep into planetary dust, I earned my undergraduate and master's degrees at IIT Bombay, where I served as Project Manager and Systems Engineer for the Student Satellite Program. I gained critical hands-on experience during the integration, environmental testing, and flight-qualification of Pratham, IIT Bombay's first small satellite launched into low Earth orbit.

My work sits at the intersection of granular physics, computational modeling, and space exploration. Having worked on physical satellite hardware and complex computational frameworks, I translate microgravity granular physics into actionable mission-design constraints and instrument requirements. Feel free to reach out to connect or discuss research collaborations.

When I'm not running simulations or wrangling Python and C++ scripts, you can find me cooking intricate meals from scratch (think homemade pizza or hand-folded dumplings), writing about small bodies on Space Rocks and op-eds on the Indian Space Ecosystem, building heavily optimized production lines in Factorio, or lifting weights in the gym.