Curriculum Vitae
(pdf version probably not as updated)
Research experience
- 2024 - present: Assistant Professor, University of Arizona & Steward Observatory
- 2021 - 2023: Flatiron Research Fellow, Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute
- 2020 - 2021: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Columbia University
- 2019 - 2020: Flatiron Research Fellow, Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute
- 2015 - 2019: PhD Candidate, University of Amsterdam
- January 2017/June 2017: Graduate Fellow in KITP (UCSB)
- July 2013/September 2013: INFN/LIGO Summer internship at the California Institute of Technology
Education
2019: PhD in Astrophysics, University of Amsterdam - advisor S. E. de Mink
Thesis title "Live fast and die young: evolution and fate of massive stars"
2015: Master in Physics, major in Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Pisa - advisors C. D. Ott and S. N. Shore
Thesis title "Systematic study of mass loss in the evolution of massive stars"
2012: Bachelor in Physics, University of Pisa - advisor G. Paffuti
Thesis on the non-relativistic calculation of Mercury's precession
Grants & Awards
- 2024: NASA/ATP (~380k$ over 3 years)
- 2019: Flatiron Research Fellowship
- 2017: KITP Graduate Student Fellowship
Observing and computing time grants
- July 2022: Co-I Chandra proposal "BH candidate in an extreme heartbeat star" (PI: S. Oey)
- December 2019: Co-I X-Shooter proposal "HOTFUSS" (PI: S. Geier)
- July 2018: Co-I Muse proposal “MUSE WFM-AO observations of the Small Magellanic Cloud cluster NGC 330 as a benchmark for single and binary evolution of massive stars” (PI: J. Bodensteiner, 3.3h of VLT time)
- November 2017: PI for the Pilot Project " Impact of pair-pulsational instabilities on black hole masses". Granted 500000 CPU hours on the Supercomputer Cartesius
- January 2016: PI for the Pilot Project “Mass Loss in Massive Star Evolution: Systematic Comparison of Algorithms”. Granted 500000 CPU hours on the Supercomputer Cartesius
Travel grants
- March 2018: Leids Kerkhoven-Bosscha Fonds (LKBF) Travel funds - 500€
- September 2018: Leids Kerkhoven-Bosscha Fonds (LKBF) Travel funds - 1200€
- April 2018: Leids Kerkhoven-Bosscha Fonds (LKBF) Travel funds - 500€
- April 2016: Leids Kerkhoven-Bosscha Fonds (LKBF) Travel funds - 500€
- April 2016: Funds from the University of Pisa for master thesis abroad - 2000€
Other professional experiences and qualifications
- Organizer (with Dr.~van~Son and Dr.~Goldberg) of "Stable mass transfer workshop" at CCA, NYC, 11-13 March 2024,(Online recordings)
- SOC member for the conference "Massive Binaries 2023", Leuven, Belgium, 17-21 July 2023
- Referee for ApJ, ApJL, A&A, MNRAS, MNRASL, Nature Astronomy, Frontiers in Astrophysics
- 2x panelist for the National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Translator (from French to English) of the book "Guide Pratique pour (Bien) Commencer en Spectroscopie Astronomique", author François Cochard, published by EPD Science
- Member of the "Flatiron Institute Professional Development" committee (2023)
- AAS Full Member (2024)
Extracurricular academic training
- 2020: Introduction to Machine Learning, Flatiron Institute
- 2019: Presentation skills course, University of Amsterdam
- 2017: How to effectively supervise University of Amsterdam
- 2016: How to master your PhD, University of Amsterdam
- 2015: Scientific writing, Nova school, Astron
- 2014: MESA summer school, KITP, UCSB
- 2013: Gravitational-wave astrophysics School, Caltech
- 2012:cademic English writing (C1 level), University of Pisa
Teaching & mentoring
I have enjoyed the privilege of working with many talented undergraduate, master, and PhD students in Amsterdam, Leiden, Surrey, Arizona State University, and Columbia University. These collaborations produced 5 student-led papers accepted for publication (Evans et al. 2020, Chan et al. 2022, Farag et al. 2022, Xin et al. 2022, Hendriks et al. 2023).
I also have held several guest lectures at master level (at the University of Pisa, Amsterdam, CUNY, Harvard|CfA, Columbia), and have been a teaching assistant in MESA schools twice (at UCSB in 2014 and UCAS, Beijing in 2018).
Mentored and co-mentored students
- 2022- present - Aldana Grichener, Brandon Barker, Camille Landri, Kaila Nathaniel, Tom Wagg (MPA/Kavli astrophysics summer program)
- 2021-2022 - Ebrahim Farag (Arizona State University)
- 2021 - Ho Sang Chan (summer project)
- Summer 2021 - Nathalia Torres (summer project)
- 2020-2022 - Chengcheng Xin (Columbia University)
- Summer 2020 - Asmaa Elsayed (summer project)
- 2019-2020 - Fraser Evans (University of Leiden)
- 2017- present - David Hendriks (master thesis, University of Amsterdam) - continued as PhD student at the University of Surrey
- 2017 - Max Briel (bachelor thesis, University of Amsterdam) - continued PhD student at the University of Auckland
- 2016 - Floor Broekgaarden (bachelor thesis, University of Amsterdam) - continued as Master student in Amsterdam and then PhD student at CfA, Harvard
Teaching assistant or Instructor
- 2018, University of the Chinese accademy of Science. Simulating stars MESA school
- 2017 - 2018, University of Amsterdam. Open problems in modern astrophysics
- 2016 - 2017, University of Amsterdam. Open problems in modern astrophysics
- 2015, University of California Santa Barbara. MESA summer school
- 2015 - 2016, University of Amsterdam. High energy astrophysics (radiative processes and accretion flows), taught by Prof. S. Markoff