Andrea Antoni

Research Interests

• Theoretical and computational hydrodynamics
• Massive stellar death
• Red supergiants
• Assembly of LIGO binaries

Biography

I am a Berkeley Dissertation-Year Fellow and NSF Graduate Fellow in the department of astronomy.  I work with Eliot Quataert (now at Princeton) studying the deaths of massive stars in weak or failed explosions in order to understand the observational signatures of black hole birth.

I earned a B.S. in Physics (Astrophysics) with Highest Honors from the University of California, Santa Cruz in August 2018 where I was a Regents Scholar and a Barry Goldwater Scholar.  At UCSC, I worked with Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz and Morgan MacLeod studying the common envelope phase in the formation of close binaries as well as the general hydrodynamical problem of the drag and accretion experienced by binaries embedded in gases.

I am a first-generation college student and I was introduced to physics at community college.  Participating in the Lamat REU the summer before transferring to UCSC was critical to my path to grad school because it connected me with mentors and gave me an opportunity to do research early in my scientific journey.  I serve on the Executive Committee for POWER Bay-Area, a mentoring program and workshop series for East Bay community college students.  Talk to me if you’d like to get involved!