Cecilia Lunardini is an Italian nuclear astrophysicist known for her research on neutrinos from the sun, from the

cosmic neutrino background The cosmic neutrino background (CNB or CB) is the universe's background particle radiation composed of neutrinos. They are sometimes known as relic neutrinos. The CB is a relic of the Big Bang; while the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB ...

, from

supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...

e and

failed supernova A failed supernova is an astronomical event in time domain astronomy in which a star suddenly brightens as in the early stage of a supernova, but then does not increase to the massive flux of a supernova. They could be counted as a subcategory of ...

e, and from collisions of stars with

black hole A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravitation, gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts t ...

s. She is a professor of physics at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

Education and career

Lunardini studied physics at the

University of Pavia The University of Pavia ( it, Università degli Studi di Pavia, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; la, Alma Ticinensis Universitas) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one ...

, graduating in 1998. She completed a Ph.D. in physics at the

International School for Advanced Studies The International School for Advanced Studies (Italian: ''Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati''; SISSA) is an international, state-supported, post-graduate-education and research institute in Trieste, Italy. SISSA is active in the ...

in 2001, under the supervision of Alexei Smirnov. Her dissertation won the Giorgio Gamberini prize of the

Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa The Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (commonly known in Italy as "la Normale") is a public university in Pisa and Florence, Tuscany, Italy, currently attended by about 600 undergraduate and postgraduate (PhD) students. It was founded in 1810 wi ...

. After postdoctoral research at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

and

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

, she became an assistant professor at the

in 2007, concurrently with a five-year research fellowship at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. She earned an Italian

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

in 2014, and was promoted to full professor in 2018.

Recognition

Lunardini was named a

Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics. The following lists are divided chronologically by the year of designation. * List of American Physic ...

(APS) in 2020, after a nomination by the APS Division for Nuclear Physics, "for outstanding contributions to nuclear and neutrino astrophysics, in particular to the theoretical analysis of supernova neutrino propagation and prospects for detection".

References

External links

Home page at Arizona State UniversityPersonal home page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lunardini, Cecilia Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American astrophysicists American women physicists Italian astrophysicists Italian women physicists Women astrophysicists Neutrino physicists University of Pavia alumni Arizona State University faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society 21st-century American women