![](https://webapps.unitn.it/public/store/ermete/persona/per0059261/ufficiale.jpg?c=2018318431)
Sunny Vagnozzi
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Education |
2009 High School Scientific Diploma, Liceo Scientifico Tecnologico “Guglielmo Marconi”, Sabaudia (LT) 2009 Violin Diploma (equivalent to Bachelor of Arts), Santa Cecilia Conservatory, Rome 2012 Bachelor of Science in Physics, University of Trento 2014 Master of Science in Physics, University of Melbourne 2019 PhD in Theoretical Physics, Stockholm University |
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Academic career and teaching activities |
Academic appointments2022-today Assistant Professor (tenure-track RTDb), University of Trento 2019-2022 Newton-Kavli Fellow, Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge 2019-2022 College Research Associate, Homerton College, University of Cambridge
Academic visitsVarious (short or long) academic visits at Imperial College London (2012-2013, as an Erasmus exchange student), Niels Bohr Institute (2014-2015), CP3 Origins, University of Southern Denmark (2015), NORDITA (2015-2016, as affiliated PhD student), University of Michigan (2016 and 2019), Harvard University (2018)
Professional qualifications2023 Italian National Scientific Qualification as Full Professor, sector 02/A2 - Theoretical Physics of Fundamental Interactions (valid until 2034) 2023 Italian National Scientific Qualification as Full Professor, sector 02/C1 - Astronomy, Astrophysics, Earth and Planetary Physics (valid until 2034)
Teaching experience2023-2024 Advanced Topics in Theoretical Physics, University of Trento (main lecturer) 2023-today Fisica Generale I (secondo modulo), University of Trento (main lecturer) 2023 Tonale Winter School on Cosmology 2023 (Passo del Tonale, Italy; invited lecturer) 2023 Percorso di Approfondimento in Fisica, University of Trento 2017-2018 Programming, numerical methods and statistics for physicist, Stockholm University (teaching assistant) 2016-2018 Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics, Stockholm University (teaching assistant) 2016-2017 Mathematical Methods for Physicists, Stockholm University (teaching assistant) 2014 Experimental design and data analysis, University of Melbourne (teaching assistant) 2014 Physics for Biomedicine, University of Melbourne (teaching assistant) 2014 Physics 2: Physical Science & Technology, University of Melbourne (teaching assistant) 2013 Physics 1, University of Melbourne (teaching assistant)
Postdoc mentoring and student supervisionPostdocs 2024-present Simony Santos da Costa (University of Trento; Caritro Fellow) PhD students 2023-present Davide Pedrotti, main advisor (University of Trento) 2019-2022 Isabelle Tanseri (Stockholm University; main advisor: Prof. Katherine Freese) MSc students or equivalent 2024-present Leonardo Comini, main advisor (University of Trento) 2024-present Mattia Scotto, main advisor (University of Trento) 2023-2024 Giovanni Piccoli, main advisor (University of Trento) 2022-2023 Davide Pedrotti, (University of Trento and University of Tübingen; co-advisor: Prof. Kostas Kokkotas) 2020-2021 Alexander Reeves, main advisor (University of Cambridge; co-advisors: Prof. George Efstathiou and Prof. Blake Sherwin) |
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Research interests |
My research interests lie broadly at the intersection of cosmology, astrophysics, and particle physics. I work at the interface of data analysis, theory, phenomenology, and experiments. The overarching goal of my research is to connect fundamental physics to precision cosmological and astrophysical data. More specifically, my aim through precision cosmological and astrophysical data is: to identify those models which best describe our Universe, and in particular dark matter and dark energy; to constrain the parameters of these models and define goals for future experiments; and likewise to construct viable data-driven theoretical models. This back-and-forth interplay between existing data, future experiments, and theory, represents my main research strength. I am always on the lookout for new exciting ideas and directions. On the data side, I tackle a wide variety of measurements, ranging from observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background and the Large-Scale Structure of the Universe, to gravitational waves, and horizon-scale images of black hole shadows. On the theory side, my main focus is on models of dark matter, dark energy, cosmic inflation, and gravitation, especially those with the potential to address some of the most important shortcomings of the standard ΛCDM paradigm on both cosmological and astrophysical scales. My research robustly connects these well-motivated fundamental physics scenarios to precision measurements across a wide range of times and scales. Some of my current research themes include (but are not limited to):
For more information on my research activity, please see www.sunnyvagnozzi.com/en/research, for more technical details please check my publications. |
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Research work |
Complete and continuously up-to-date lists of my publications may be found on my profiles on the following databases: INSPIRE-HEP, NASA ADS, Google Scholar, and arXiv. UniTN users may also consult the IRIS database. Bibliometric metrics (updated March 2024) |
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Memberships in societies and scientific committees |
2023-today Lifetime member of the Italian Society of General Relativity and Gravitation 2022-today Member of the CosmoVerse COST Action 2022-today Member of EuCAPT (European Consortium for Astroparticle Theory) 2021-today Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society 2014-today Member of the Italian Physical Society |
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Awards and honours |
Selected awards, fellowships, and grants Awards 2022 Buchalter Cosmology Prize (third prize) 2021 Alfredo di Braccio Prize, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei 2021 Symmetry Young Investigator Award 2020 Springer Thesis Award, Springer Nature 2019 Pio Picchi Prize, Italian Physical Society 2023 Grant from the Caritro Foundation (70,000.00 €, funding the research project “Inflation and dark sector physics in light of next-generation cosmological surveys”, co-PI with Massimiliano Rinaldi and Simony Santos da Costa) 2022 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship (188,590.08 €, funding the research project “PADOVA: Precision Cosmology and Dark Sector Physics with Gravitational Waves”) [declined] 2021 Grant from the Foundation Blanceflor Boncompagni Ludovisi, née Bildt (100,000.00 SEK, funding the research project “DECODE: Direct Detection of Dark Energy”) 2019 Newton-Kavli Fellowship, University of Cambridge Several other prestigious fellowships have been obtained and declined, including the Schramm Fellowship (Fermilab), Nordita Fellowship (NORDITA), Kavli Fellowship (University of Tokyo), MSI Prize Fellowship (McGill University), Fraunhofer-Schwarzschild Fellowship (LMU Munich), Chamberlain Fellowship (UC Berkeley), CITA Fellowship (University of Toronto), Chancellors' Fellowship (UC Irvine), Regents' Fellowship (UC Santa Cruz), CSE Fellowship (University of Minnesota), Huygens Fellowship (Leiden University) |
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Conferences and lectures |
I have delivered over 70 talks at seminars/webinars and colloquia at top institutions throughout the world, as well as several international conferences and workshops. Places where I recently gave invited talks include but are not limited to Cambridge, Fermilab, Perimeter, Imperial, ETH, UCLA, UCL, McGill, Sussex, King's College London, Michigan, SISSA, LMU, Berkeley, Harvard. For a full list of talks with slides and videos (where available) see www.sunnyvagnozzi.com/en/talks. |
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Other work |
Academic service activities2024-today Member of the Executive Committee of the Physics Doctoral School, University of Trento 2023-today Member of the Teaching Committee, Department of Physics, University of Trento 2023 Member of the Committee for admission to the third year of the doctoral school 2023-today Member of the Physics Doctoral School Committee, University of Trento 2022-today Member of the Physics Department Board, University of Trento 2021-2022 Member of the IoA Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Committee, University of Cambridge 2020-2021 Organizer for the Cosmology Lunch seminar series at the University of Cambridge 2017-2018 Convener of the Cosmology and Gravity Working Group at the Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics, Stockholm University 2014 Elected Postgraduate Physics Students’ Society secretary, University of Melbourne 2014 Elected Physics Academic Programs Committee member, University of Melbourne 2013 Elected Physics Staff Student Liaison Committee member, University of Melbourne
Work as thesis committee member2024 Opponent for MSc thesis discussion of Filippo Mazzini (University of Trento; advisor: Prof. Albino Perego) 2024 Opponent for MSc thesis discussion of Pietro Paolo Gambelli (University of Trento; advisor: Prof. Roberto Battiston) 2024 Opponent for MSc thesis discussion of Alessandra Accettola (University of Trento; advisor: Prof. Raffaello Potestio) 2023 Opponent for MSc thesis discussion of Francesco Venturelli (University of Trento; advisor: Prof. William J. Weber) 2023 External committee member for the PhD thesis discussion of Tiziano Schiavone (University of Pisa; advisors: Prof. Giovanni Marozzi, Prof. Giovanni Montani, & Dr. Giuseppe Fanizza) 2023 Opponent for MSc thesis discussion of Víctor Alexander Torres (University of Trento; advisors: Prof. Albino Perego & Prof. Enrico Barausse) 2023 Committee member for the BSc thesis discussion (prova finale) of Lavinia Feliciangeli (University of Trento; advisor: Prof. Massimiliano Rinaldi)
Advisory and reviewing activities2024-today Reviewer for the Israel Science Foundation, Israel 2023-today Reviewer for FONDECYT, Chile 2022-today Editor of Physics of the Dark Universe 2021 Scientific consultant for The Secrets of the Universe, children popular science book in the Very Short Introductions for Curious Young Minds series (Oxford University Press) 2020-2022 Editorial board member of Universe (MDPI) 2019-2022 Editorial board member of Experimental Results (Cambridge University Press) 2019-2022 Editorial board member of Advances in High Energy Physics (Hindawi) 2016-today Referee for most of the major journals in cosmology, astrophysics, and high-energy physics, including Nat. Astron., Nat. Commun., PRL, PRD, PLB, MNRAS, ApJ, JCAP, JHEP, CQG, PDU, EPJC (see my Web of Science profile for more information)
Outreach2023 Universe Today outreach interview 2023 Organizer and volunteer for Notte della Ricerca (European Researchers’ Night), Trento 2023 Physics Frontiers outreach interview (Youtube Random Questions episode) 2022 Outreach interview on Acaudio 2021 Invited outreach webinar “La forma dell’Universo: piatto o chiuso?” (in Italian), Associazione AstronomiAmo (amateur astronomers association) [video] 2019-2022 Member of the production team for the University of Cambridge Institute of Astronomy’s podcast (Astropod) 2019 Organizer and volunteer for AstroFika (Ask an Astronomer), Stockholm 2018 Organizer and volunteer for ForskarFredag (European Researchers' Night), Stockholm
Selected press coverageMy most important research results have received widespread coverage throughout the world. By way of example, below are links to selected press coverage of my research work. Con Laniakea la tensione di Hubble sale, Media INAF |
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Notes |
For more information check my website www.sunnyvagnozzi.com. CV and publications list in PDF format can also be downloaded in the “Attachments” section. |
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Attachments |