Marica Branchesi

Marica Branchesi (Urbino, March 7, 1977) is an Italian astrophysicist. Her leadership and scientific work was pivotal for Virgo/LIGO's discovery of gravitational waves.[1] She is vice president of International Astronomical Union Gravitational Wave Astrophysics Commission and member of the Gravitational Wave International Committee.[2]

Education

Branchesi completed her undergraduate degree in astronomy in 2002, and obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Bologna in 2006, with a focus in radio astronomy, black holes and clusters of galaxies.[3] She then moved to the California Institute of Technology, where she met her husband, Jan Harms, German physicist and gravitational waves expert.[4]

Research

After being awarded a grant by Italian Minister of Education in 2009, she decided to move back to Italy, where she built her own research staff at the University of Urbino.[5] She is now an assistant professor at the Gran Sasso Science Institute,[6] where she works as co-liaison to coordinate between LIGO's and Virgo's follow up of sending gravitational-wave alerts in low-latency. At LIGO/Virgo, she also studied gravitational waves physics and electromagnetic signals associated with gravitational signal sources.[7]

Notably, she was named one of Nature's "Ten people who mattered this year" for her work as liaison between LIGO and Virgo in the gravitational wave collaboration. She served as a link between the physicists and astronomers, and encouraged both groups to take tentative detections more seriously and coordinated telescopes to follow up on events as soon as they were discovered.[8]

Her current interests lie in understanding the nature of black holes and neutron stars, namely what governs their emission, formation and evolution. With her research, she aims to develop multi-messenger astronomy that uses electromagnetic and gravitational waves to probe the most energetic phenomena in the universe.[9]

Awards

Works
  • Branchesi, Marica; Collaboration, Ligo Scientific; Collaboration, Virgo (2012). "Electromagnetic follow-up of gravitational wave transient signal candidates". Journal of Physics: Conference Series. 375 (6): 062004. arXiv:1202.4421. Bibcode:2012JPhCS.375f2004B. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/375/1/062004. ISSN 1742-6596. S2CID 119114529.
  • Ziosi, Brunetto Marco; Mapelli, Michela; Branchesi, Marica; Tormen, Giuseppe (2014-07-11). "Dynamics of stellar black holes in young star clusters with different metallicities – II. Black hole–black hole binaries". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 441 (4): 3703–3717. arXiv:1404.7147. Bibcode:2014MNRAS.441.3703Z. doi:10.1093/mnras/stu824. ISSN 0035-8711.
  • Patricelli, B.; Razzano, M.; Cella, G.; Fidecaro, F.; Pian, E.; Branchesi, M.; Stamerra, A. (2016). "Prospects for joint observations of gravitational waves and gamma rays from merging neutron star binaries". Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. 2016 (11): 056. arXiv:1606.06124. Bibcode:2016JCAP...11..056P. doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2016/11/056. ISSN 1475-7516. S2CID 119205530.
  • Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abbott, T. D.; Abernathy, M. R.; Acernese, F.; Ackley, K.; Adams, C.; Adams, T.; Addesso, P. (2016-02-11). "Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger". Physical Review Letters. 116 (6): 061102. arXiv:1602.03837. Bibcode:2016PhRvL.116f1102A. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.116.061102. ISSN 0031-9007. PMID 26918975. S2CID 119286014.
  • Branchesi, Marica (2016). "Multi-messenger astronomy: gravitational waves, neutrinos, photons, and cosmic rays". Journal of Physics: Conference Series. 718 (2): 022004. Bibcode:2016JPhCS.718b2004B. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/718/2/022004. ISSN 1742-6596.

See also

References
  1. "Marica Branchesi: The World's 100 Most Influential People". Time. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
  2. "International Astronomical Union | IAU". www.iau.org. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  3. "L'Aquila, la prof Marica Branchesi tra i grandi della scienza". Il Centro (in Italian). Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  4. "Marica e Jan, astronoma e fisico 'a caccia di onde'. La coppia che ha scelto Urbino per la ricerca". il Ducato (in Italian). 2016-02-10. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  5. "L'Italia deve investire di più sulla scienza, è la nostra scommessa per il futuro". Repubblica.it (in Italian). 2017-12-19. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  6. "Gentiloni proud of astrophysicist in Nature's Top Ten (3) - English Service". ANSA.it. 2017-12-19. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  7. "NSF ANNOUNCES NEW GRAVITATIONAL WAVE FINDINGS, Oct 16, 2017, DC, 10:00-12:30 ET (webcast)". spacepolicyonline.com. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  8. "Nature's 10". Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  9. "BRANCHESI Marica". Retrieved 2018-07-26.
  10. "Breakthrough Prize – Special Breakthrough Prize In Fundamental Physics Awarded For Detection Of Gravitational Waves 100 Years After Albert Einstein Predicted Their Existence". breakthroughprize.org. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  11. Malaspina, Marco. "Un'onda da tre milioni di dollari". MEDIA INAF (in Italian). Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  12. "Marica Branchesi: The World's 100 Most Influential People". Time. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
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