Ronaldo Laishram

Ronaldo Laishram is an astrophysicist from Khangabok in Manipur’s Thoubal district who studies how galaxies formed in the early universe. His team’s discovery of the Loktak Protocluster, named after Manipur’s Loktak Lake, was highlighted in episode 136 of Mann Ki Baat in July 2026 ^[1][3].

Career

Laishram took his master’s degree and PhD in astronomy at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan ^[3][4]. Since October 2024 he has been a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), working on galaxy formation and evolution ^[3][4].

The Loktak Protocluster

A protocluster is a group of young galaxies that gravity will later pull together into a large galaxy cluster; Laishram has described it as a “city of galaxies” still under construction ^[3]. His team first found this one with Japan’s Subaru Telescope, then studied it with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. It is seen as it was when the universe was only about 1.2 billion years old ^[2]. The results were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters ^[3].

The team found that, even this early, galaxies in the crowded protocluster had grown differently from those in emptier space. Their older stars spread over a larger area, on average about 1.4 times wider, suggesting that a galaxy’s surroundings shaped its growth from very early on ^[2].

The structure is made of four linked concentrations of galaxies, and NAOJ explains that the name reflects how these resemble the floating islands of vegetation, called phumdis, on Loktak Lake ^[2][3]. Laishram has said the name is his way of linking his home with the wider universe ^[3].

Outreach

Laishram is the founding coordinator of the Manipur Astronomical Society, which promotes astronomy among students in Manipur and the North East, and co-founded OviEdu, a mentoring and career platform for students ^[3][4].