She graduated from Mount Holyoke College where she majored in Physics, and earned a Ph.D in Astronomy from Harvard University. Before coming to UVa in 2013, she was a Pappalardo Fellow at MIT and a Prize Fellow at the Yale Center for Astronomy & Astrophysics. As importantly, she has taken the lead in a partnership with Spelman College in Atlanta, a historically black women's institution, known for the high percentage of women graduates in the sciences.In collaboration with the Spelman College Physics department Nitya seeks to inspire young women to major in Physics and pursue graduate training.