Employing the techiques of high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy, Prof. Kulkarni uses a variety of instruments in order to get a good picture of the birth, youth, and old age of galaxies. Among them are the Hubble Space Telescope and various ground-based telescopes such as the Kitt Peak National Observatory, the Multiple Mirror Telescope in Arizona, the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, and the 8.1 meter Gemini-North telescope in Hawaii. A major goal of her research is to empirically trace the production and evolution of chemical elements in the interstellar matter of galaxies over cosmic time by studying absorption features in the spectra of quasars. She also studies the morphology, size, and luminosity of young galaxies, with the goal of probing the overall history of star formation and the assembly of proto-galaxies into present-day galaxies. She has also worked on extragalactic background radiation and physical conditions in the intergalactic medium as well as the interstellar medium in our own galaxy, active galaxies, and the galaxies that host quasars. A number of exciting opportunities in space and ground-based observational astronomy and modeling exist in her work for graduate and undergraduate student research.