Nadia Blagorodnova

Nadia Blagorodnova, VENI Postdoctoral fellow at Radboud University, Nijmegen. My current research interest is understanding the interactions between binary stars at the last stages before their merger (Luminous Red Novae) and stars disrupted by supermassive black holes (Tidal Disruption Events). Currently I am a science advisor for the commissioning of MeerLICHT and BlackGEM telescopes. I have ample expertise with the Gaia ESA survey, iPTF and ZTF surveys. During my postdoc at Caltech, I have led the automatisation and scientific exploitation of SED-Machine, an instrument for robotic transient classification.

William Dawson

Will Dawson, Research Scientist in Physics at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. My current research interests lie predominantly with gravitational microlensing probes of intermediate mass black holes. I am leading the PALS DECam survey, which is using microlensing parallax to characterize the population of intermediate mass black holes leading up to the LSST survey. I have a background in dark matter, dark energy, observational astronomy (optical imaging & spectroscopy, IR, X-ray, and radio), statistical/data analysis methods, and merging galaxy cluster associated physics.

Kishalay De

Kishalay De, 3rd year graduate student at Caltech working with Mansi Kasliwal. I am leading the Census of the Local Universe (CLU) experiment of the Zwicky Transient Facility, aiming to build a volume-complete sample of transients in the local universe (within 200 Mpc) with ZTF. I am the data lead for the Gattini-IR project, a wide-field infrared transient survey operating from Palomar observatory. My research interests revolve around using local universe transients to probe supernova progenitors and rates, with a special interest in understanding the formation and fates of compact binary systems. Previously as an undergraduate, I worked on high performance signal processing algorithms for radio astronomy, and on multi-wavelength observations of galactic X-ray binaries.

Christoffer Fremling, Postdoctoral Researcher at Caltech. My interests are supernovae and GW optical counterparts. Current focus is on running the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) Bright Supernova Survey (BTS), with which we aim to address supernova rates, luminosity functions and the redshift completeness of local galaxy catalogs. I have also done significant work on stripped envelope supernovae, both in the form of individual objects analyzed in detail and sample studies addressing the differences between the stripped envelope SN subtypes.

Danny Goldstein, Hubble Fellow at Caltech. My research focuses on searching for strongly gravitationally lensed supernovae and gravitational wave counterparts with wide-field imagers, namely ZTF, LSST, and DECam. I am the co-convener of the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration's strong lensing science working group. I am developing a deep stacking facility for ZTF that will increase the survey's sensitivity to faint transients, with the goal of providing a stream of targets for future MMS facilities. \




Anna Ho

Anna Ho, 4th-year graduate student at Caltech working with Shri Kulkarni. I am interested in a rare, extreme class of stellar death: explosions powered by a central engine, an accreting black hole or a rapidly spinning neutron star. For the last half-century, these "engine-driven" explosions have predominantly been discovered using gamma-ray satellites, as long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). With the Zwicky Transient Facility, I am conducting a large-scale optical survey dedicated to finding these explosions via different avenues: optical afterglow emission, broad-lined stripped-envelope supernovae (Ic-BL SNe), and transients too fast and too luminous to be explained by conventional SN models (as in the recent extraordinary transient AT2018cow). Before coming to Caltech, I spent a year at the MPIA in Heidelberg working on data-driven approaches to stellar spectroscopy -- in particular, on a method for propagating information from a high-S/N, high-resolution survey to low-resolution, noisy spectra. I have also worked on radio studies of millisecond pulsars.

Ji-an ("Jian") Jiang, a PhD candidate of Institute of Astronomy (IoA), the University of Tokyo. My current interests are the study of early-phase SNe Ia and fast transients (e.g. FELTs, FRBs) with specific transient surveys. I am the principal investigator of the MUlti-band Subaru Survey for Early-phase SNe Ia (MUSSES). I will start the post-doc research somewhere in Japan from April, 2019.




Alex Kim

Sang Chul KIM, a Staff Scientist at the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), South Korea. Currently working in the KMTNet (Korea Microlensing Telescope Network) Supernova Program (KSP) team (PI : Dae-Sik Moon, Univ of Toronto). I had worked on star clusters and stellar populations in nearby galaxies (like the local group or the Virgo cluster). I served the Korean Giant Magellan Telescope project team for about seven years. Then I started working in the KSP team, doing stellar astronomy such as supernovae, variables, transients, etc.




Nick Konidaris

Nick Konidaris, Staff Astronomer at Carnegie Observatories. My current interest is in the design and development of optical and infrared instruments. I'm in charge of the Local Volume Mapper Instrument for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and with a new postdoc we are working on a fiber multi-object infrared spectrograph for Magellan. I recently worked a short stint in industry where I worked on CubeSats and airborne spectrometers.




Shrinivas Kulkarni

Shrinivas ("Shri") Kulkarni, Professor of Astronomy at Caltech. My current interests are the study of explosions and Fast Radio bursts. I am the principal investigator of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). I have wide background: radio astronomy, optical astronomy & instrumentation. My past interests include millisecond, brown dwarfs and gamma-ray bursts. From 2006-2018 I served as Director of the Caltech Optical Observatories.




Shing-Chi Leung

Shing-Chi Leung, Project Researcher of the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, The University of Tokyo. I am a theoretical astrophysicist interested in the explosion process of supernovae and the associated nucleosynthesis. I use mostly my own multi-D hydrodynamics code and the stellar evolution code MESA for the simulations. I have a wide interest in modeling different types of supernova, including Type Ia supernova, electron capture supernova, pulsation pair-instability supernova and core-collapse supernova in the black hole branch (collapsar). My recent projects include exploring the possibility of using pulsation pair-instability supernova model to explain the unusual rapid transient AT2018cow.

 


Shude Mao

Shude Mao, Professor of Astrophysics at Tsinghua University and a theorist. My current interests are galactic dynamics for the Milky Way with LAMOST and nearby galaxies with the SDSS-IV MaNGA survey, and the search for extrasolar planets with microlensing (using the KMTNet and the LCO network) and transits. I have some budding interests in multiplexed spectroscopic surveys. I currently serve as the Director of the Tsinghua Center for Astrophysics, and the TMT-China project scientist.




Keiichi Maeda

Keiichi Maeda, Associate Professor of the Department of Astronomy, Kyoto University. My interests include the stellar evolution, the nature of supernovae and related explosive transients. I have my original background as a theorist/modeler for SN hydrodynamics, nucleosynthesis and radiation transfer, but have also been involved in observations (radio, UV-optical-NIR, X and gammas).  Currently I am particularly interested in the final few years of evolution of SN progenitors, both in the single and binary scenarios. I am planning to coordinate transient follow-up program(s) with a coming 3.8m "Seimei" Kyoto-U telescope at Okayama observatory.

Takashi Moriya, Assistant Professor at Division of Theoretical Astronomy, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. My research interests are core-collapse supernovae and their progenitors’ evolution towards core collapse. I’m interested in how the diverse stellar evolutionary paths to core collapse makes the diversity in core-collapse supernovae. I’ve been working on many different kinds of core collapse supernovae, from superluminous supernovae to faint supernovae such as ultra-stripped supernovae. I also work on stellar evolution. I hope to work on white dwarf explosions as well but I haven’t had any good ideas. I mainly work on theory but I’m involved in the HSC transient survey to find high-redshift supernovae.
 


Takashi Nagao

Peter Nugent is a Senior Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Department Head for Computational Science in the Computational Research Division. His interests in astronomy span both the theoretical and observational including spectrum synthesis and hydrodynamic explosion modeling of supernovae as well as novel techniques for finding moving objects. From 2009-2016 Nugent ran the real-time image subtraction pipeline at NERSC for PTF and iPTF and is currently working on a deep co-addition pipeline for ZTF.




Ryoma Ouchi

Peter Ryoma Ouchi, is the graduate student, working with Keiichi Maeda at Kyoto University in Japan. My research interest is the enhanced mass loss of massive stars just prior to the supernovae. Especially, I am interested in the physical mechanisms of the pre-SN mass loss, such as the energy deposition by waves. Now, I am investigating how such an energy deposition affects the density structure of the progenitor and the ensuing supernovae. Previously, I was working on the binary evolution models for SNe IIb progenitors in relation to their pre-SN mass loss.




Arne Rau

Arne Rau, Staff Scientist at MPE Garching. Athena/WFI Project Scientist, Co-chair of SRG/eROSITA(DE) science working group on Time Domain Astrophysics, acting Principal Investigator of GROND at the 2.2m telescope in La Silla. My current interest is in extra-galactic X-ray transients and tidal disruption events. My background covers a broader range of time domain aspects (X-ray binaries, GRBs (prompt, afterglows, and hosts), AM CVns, and blazars)
 



Takahiro Sumi

Takahiro Sumi, Professor of Astrophysics at Osaka University, My current interests are the exoplanet search via microlensing, Galactic structure, transients, black hole. I am PI of MOA microlensing survey project and PRIME infrared microlensing project. I am PI of the WFIRST study team at JAXA. I am also JAXA representative of LUVOIR STDT.

Nao Suzuki

Nao Suzuki: Member of Kavli IPMU, Univ of Tokyo. I have been working in the field of precision cosmology through observatoins. I worked on baryon density measurement via primordial deuterium abundance in the quasar absortption lines. Now, we are wroking on Type Ia cosmology using Subaru/HSC followed by HST IR imaging and we expect to perform the most precise measuremet of dark energy. Recently, I discovered a dozen of interesting stars which has a perfect blackbody spectrum from UV through IR. I expect they become next generation fundamental calibrator including JWST and LSST. Spectral classification is my favorite subject and I would like to pursue developing technologies for the era of Big Data. Machine learning is another topic I've been working on. In coming years, I would like to work on: nearby blackholes, search for dying stars in Milky Way, and the epoch of reionization via IGM.




Masaomi Tanaka

Masaomi Tanaka, Associate Professor at Tohoku University. My interests include physics of supernovae and neutron star mergers as well as nucleosynthesis by these explosions. Recently, I work on (1) wide-field transient surveys using Kiso Schmidt telescope and Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam, (2) detailed follow-up observations of supernovae, in particular, spectropolarimetric observations, and (3) radiative transfer simulations of supernovae and neutron star mergers.




Nozomu Tominaga

Nozomu Tominaga, Professor at Konan University. I have studied on radiation hydrodynamics and nucleosynthesis calculations of supernovae and optical transient survey and follow-up observation with the Kiso Schmidt telescope and the Subaru telescope/Hyper Suprime-Cam. My current interests are shock breakouts, fast radio bursts, and gravitational wave sources. I'm also interested in the radiative hydrodynamics calculation of gamma-ray bursts.

 


Xiaofeng Wang

Wang, Professor of Astronomy at Tsinghua University. My current interests are the study of stellar explosions and the applications to cosmology. I am leading some wide-field survey projects such as the Tsinghua-NAOC Transient Survey (TNTS) , Purple-Mountain Observatory-Tsinghua Supernova Survey (PTSS). 




Shotaro Yamasaki

Shotaro Yamasaki, 2nd grade PhD student at Tokyo University.  I work on theoretical astrophysics and my number one interest is Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). I either use hydrodynamical simulations or adapt analytic approaches to study high energy transient phenomena. Past studies I have involved with are FRBs, Binary Neutron Star Mergers and Magnetar emissions. This summer, I will make an extended stay at Israel to work on emission mechanisms of FRBs and magnetars.

Lin Yan

Lin Yan, research astronomer at Caltech. My research interests cover a wide range of topics from high redshift galaxies to low redshift transient events. I am co-PI on a large ALMA [CII]158micron survey of 120 galaxies at z ~ 4 to 5. One of the goals is to derive z~4 [CII] line luminosity function. The major portion of my research time is currently spending on ZTF, including superluminous supernova (SLSN) and nuclear transients. I am the lead for the SLSN science from ZTF. My primary interests on SLSN are volume metric rates/luminosity functions as well as nebular phase optical and near-infrared spectroscopy. On nuclear transients, I am interested in infrared properties of TDEs (dust echoes) and the complicated relationship between changing-look AGN and TDE.

Naoki Yasuda, faculty member at Kavli IPMU. My interests are SN Ia cosmology and statistical properties of SNe Ia. I have been working on the development of HSC data analysis pipeline and HSC SSP (Subaru Strategic Program). I also developed transient pipeline for our Subaru/HSC transient survey.