Alessia Gualandris

Alessia Gualandris is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Surrey, leading the Astrophysics Research Group. She holds roles as Telescope Director and previously led Athena Swan and Juno initiatives. Her research focuses on gravitational wave sources, supermassive black hole binaries, galactic dynamics, and computational astrophysics.

• Education: PhD in Astrophysics (2006, University of Amsterdam), postdoctoral work at Rochester Institute of Technology, Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics, and University of Leicester.

Her research investigates the dynamics of galactic nuclei hosting supermassive black holes, gravitational wave emission from black hole binaries, and the formation of galactic cores. Key projects include contributions to the European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA) and the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), which recently detected evidence of a gravitational wave background from massive black hole binaries.

Publications emphasize numerical simulations to model galaxy mergers, binary black hole evolution, and hypervelocity star dynamics. Awards include the STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship (2017).

Advising & Grants: Supervised 3 current and 3 completed PhD students. Collaborates internationally on projects funded by grants including an extra £1.7m for space research (2023).

Labs/Teams: Leads the Astrophysics Research Group at Surrey, focusing on computational astrophysics and gravitational wave studies.