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Giulia Cerini

Photo of Giulia Cerini

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive

Pasadena, CA 91109

Curriculum Vitae:

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Member of:

Origin of the Universe

NASA Postdoctoral Fellow

Biography

Dr. Giulia Cerini is a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow specializing in galaxy cluster astrophysics and cosmology. She earned her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Miami, where she conducted research in X-ray astrophysics under the supervision of Dr. Nico Cappelluti. Her doctoral work focused on the power spectrum analysis of large-scale cosmic structures and the X-ray background. Prior to her Ph.D., Dr. Cerini completed her Bachelor's in Physics and Master's in Astronomy and Astrophysics at La Sapienza University of Rome, where she collaborated with Dr. Raffaella Schneider on understanding the formation and evolution of early supermassive black holes. Her contributions included key predictions for the future detection of gravitational waves.

Education

  • 2024 Ph.D. in Physics, University of Miami, Award of Academic Merit;
  • 2021, Master’s degree in Physics, University of Miami, Award of Academic Merit;
  • 2019, Master’s degree in Astronomy and Astrophysics, La Sapienza University of Rome, Summa cum Laude;
  • 2009, Bachelor’s degree in Physics, La Sapienza University of Rome.

Professional Experience

  • NASA Postdoctoral Fellow Pasadena, CA (USA) (2024) - Project description: Weak Gravitational Lensing and Galaxy Clustering as Probes of Dark Matter and Dark Energy

Community Service

  • 2019-2021: Teaching assistant in undergraduate physics laboratories at the Department of Physics of the University of Miami. Topics: elementary mechanics, fluids, waves, optics, thermodynamics.
  • 2022-: Supervisor of Young Scholars Program (YSP) student Sabina Khizroev, co-author of the papers ”Revisiting galaxy cluster scaling relations through dark matter-gas coherence” and ”Mass-gas coherence analysis of HSTFF and CLASH clusters.”

Research Interests

  • Galaxy clusters astrophysics and cosmology
  • X-ray astrophysics
  • Gravitational lensing
  • Formation and evolution of supermassive black holes

Selected Publications

  • G. Cerini, N. Cappelluti, M. Galeazzi, and E. Ursino, “Evidence of X-ray emission from the warm hot intergalactic medium” 2023. arXiv: 2307.14411 [astro-ph.CO].
  • G. Cerini, N. Cappelluti, and P. Natarajan, “New metrics to probe the dynamical state of galaxy clusters” The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 945, no. 2, p. 152, Mar. 2023., doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/acbccb.
  • R. Valiante, M. Colpi, R. Schneider, et al., “Unveiling early black hole growth with multifrequency gravitational wave observations”, vol. 500, no. 3, pp. 4095–4109, Jan. 2021., doi: 10.1093/mnras/staa3395. arXiv: 2010.15096 [astro-ph.GA].