Explorer Categories: Astronomy, Statistics, & Mathematics

I am a second-year PhD student in the astronomy department. In my first year at Berkeley, I conducted research on the emission from turbulent mixing layers in the interstellar medium. I’m currently studying tidal disruption events, which happen when the gravitational force of a black hole overwhelms the self-gravity of a passing star and shreds it apart. I’m working on a model that explains the diversity of observations we have from TDEs, particularly in the optical, UV and X-ray energy bands. Outside of astronomy, I play a lot of tennis, run and hike.

I am a graduate student working with Professor Liang Dai on gravitational wave data analysis. I am currently interested in multi-messenger astronomy of double white dwarf systems with mHz gravitational waves and optical band light. Gravitational waves in this frequency band are not currently detectable, but they will be detectable in the mid-2030s using a triangular array of spacecraft that will orbit the sun behind the Earth called LISA. Using LISA and existing and future optical telescopes, we can learn information about these systems that we cannot measure with either data set alone, like the effect of tides on the orbital evolution. I am also very passionate about teaching. I have been teaching and developing Physics 188/288: Bayesian Data Analysis and Machine Learning for Physical Sciences and I hope to bring a course like it where I end up teaching in the future. In my free time, I enjoy playing double bass and electric bass, and playing board games and video games with my friends.

I received my B.S. in Physics from UC Santa Barbara in 2022 and am now a UC Berkeley graduate student studying how massive stars explode at the end of their lives as supernovae. I am primarily focused on observing rare supernovae and related phenomena in visual and infrared wavelengths to determine the properties of the explosion and constrain the physical origin of some of the most energetic events in the universe. When I’m not observing or performing data analysis, I enjoy hiking, skiing, and spending time with my cat.

I am developing a constellation of 300 Cube Satellites to study star death and afterlife by providing all-sky, all-the-time observations. These satellites will detect transient phenomena across the sky to constrain the populations of black holes in the Universe, the rate of supernovae, and the different formation paths of compact objects. My contributions to the CuRIOS project include designing the preliminary optical system and orbital plan, identifying the optimal detector for the mission, creating code and simulations for data analysis and prediction, and organizing a larger team of scientists and engineers. I will characterize the camera used on board each CuRIOS satellite, use simulations to predict the number of black holes, supernovae, and optical counterparts to gamma-ray bursts that will be detected by CuRIOS.

Using machine learning, I am working to improve the utilization of eclipsing binary light curves by applying likelihood-free inference (LFI) to infer parameters of these systems. Upon completion of the project, I will apply the neural density estimator (NDE) to millions of eclipsing binaries from various surveys, and I will make the NDE publicly available for future studies.

I am a senior studying astrophysics at Berkeley. I transferred to Berkeley from my hometown community college, Folsom Lake College. I became interested in astrophysics because I have always wanted to contribute knowledge about our universe and I love to learn. I enjoy swimming, painting, and hanging out with my friends. One of my favorite places I have visited is Venice, Italy.

I am a PhD candidate in the statistics department. My current research aims to improve gridded data products for snow water equivalent (water quantity in snow). Since snowmelt is a vital resource for meeting freshwater and agricultural demands, understanding the amount of water that snow will yield each year is essential for short- and long-term planning. Through my work, I hope to support water resource managers in making more informed decisions on water allocation, irrigation practices, and flood and drought control to ensure that communities have access to dependable supplies of food and water and are protected against snow-related hazards.

I’m a fourth year grad student in Astronomy at UC Berkeley, where I work with Liang Dai on gravitational lensing, specifically on dark matter substructure and lensed stars/star clusters. When I’m not doing astronomy, I enjoy powerlifting and spending time with friends!

Massimo Pascale Research Talk

I’m a graduate student in the astronomy department at UC Berkeley, and my research focuses on exoplanets, which are planets orbiting stars other than our Sun. I am interested in learning about how similar (or dissimilar) other planetary systems are to our own Solar System. I also enjoy baking and hiking!

Emma Turtelboom Research Talk

Ellianna is building and implementing physics-informed machine learning architectures that accelerate discovery and analysis in astrophysical and earth science settings. A coastal polynya is an area of open water, bounded on one side by land ice, and surrounded on all other sides by sea ice. I am working to create a dataset by developing a deep learning image segmentation pipeline that incorporates the geography necessary for the creation of coastal polynyas. This study will help us to understand the rate at which coastal melting is occurring at the poles, which has long term implications for the continued use of the ocean as a natural carbon sink.