Jaeden Bardati, PhD Candidate

Co-Director, Caltech Project for Effective Teaching (CPET)

Jaeden Bardati is a second-year Physics PhD student in the TAPIR group, working under Professor Philip Hopkins. His research focuses on how supermassive black holes grow and influence their host galaxies, predicting observable multi-wavelength signatures of accretion and mergers to inform active galactic nuclei models and gravitational-wave follow-up strategies. While completing his BSc at Bishop's University, a small primarily undergraduate institution, Jaeden discovered a passion for teaching through tutoring and outreach, inspired by the impactful teachers and mentors who shaped his early academic path. Since then, he has TAed over ten courses across mathematics, physics, and astronomy, and has mentored several undergraduate students. As CPET Co-Director, Jaeden is excited to help foster an evidence-based teaching community at Caltech and to cultivate an environment where teaching is approached with the same curiosity and rigor as research.