Carla Fröhlich

Carla Fröhlich is an Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor and University Faculty Scholar in the Department of Physics at NC State University, affiliated with the College of Sciences. Prior to her faculty role, she completed a PhD in Physics at the University of Basel (Switzerland) and served as an Enrico Fermi Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on nucleosynthesis processes in explosive astrophysical events, including supernovae and neutron star mergers.

Her expertise includes the discovery of the neutrino p-process and predicting multi-messenger signals from stellar explosions. Key contributions span neutrino-driven supernova mechanisms, gravitational wave signatures, and nuclear reaction networks like WinNet. She has been honored as a Cottrell Scholar and Scialog Fellow in Time-Domain Astrophysics.

Fröhlich’s work bridges computational astrophysics and observational astronomy, with recent articles addressing nucleosynthesis in massive stars, gravitational wave eigenfrequencies, and relativistic merger outflows. Her research highlights interdisciplinary connections between nuclear physics, particle physics, and high-energy astrophysics.

• Education:
  • PhD in Physics, University of Basel (2007)
• Awards:
  • Cottrell Scholar (Awarded Year)
  • Research Corporation Scialog Fellow in Time-Domain Astrophysics (Awarded Year)
• Research Themes:
  • Stellar nucleosynthesis
  • Multi-messenger astrophysics
  • Core-collapse supernova dynamics
  • Neutrino flavor physics