Name: Angelo Ricciardone
Current position: Postdoc
Affiliation: University of Padova
Field of research: Cosmology with Gravitational Waves
What is your career trajectory to date?
I am a research fellow at the Department of Physics and Astronomy ”G. Galilei” at the University of Padova and I work on the interplay between Gravitational Wave physics and Cosmology. Before I was an INFN postdoctoral fellowship at INFN sections of Padova and Parma. Before that I was a postdoc at the University of Stavanger (Norway), where I started working on Gravitational Waves and Interferometers. I got mmi PhD at the University of Padova working on inflation, CMB and theory of cosmological perturbations with gauge fields.
What are the most exciting open questions in your research area?
After the direct detection of gravitational waves from astrophysical compact object, one of the most exciting open question and discovery would be the detection of primordial gravitational waves and the source that generate them.
What do you like and dislike about being a scientist?
I like the freedom to develop new ideas and test if they can work or not. I like the idea that one day, what we are predicting nowadays can be measured and can help understating our universe, and why not, have an impact also on the every day life.
Which of your skills are you most proud of, or find most useful?
Probably the most useful skill is the patience to seat and try and re-try to do calculations as long as my planned target is not reached out.
In your career so far, at what point were you the most excited, and what were you excited about?
For sure, when I entered the PhD program was one of the most exciting day of my life. From the discovery point of view, when the first detection of GW by LIGO/virgo was announced.
What new skills would you like to learn in the next year?
I am planning to get more involved in data analysis related to GW physics and interferometers.
What is the biggest obstacle that is slowing down your research field right now?
The predictions that together with my collaborators we are extracting from Stochastic Gravitational Wave Backgrounds.
What role do you think a community network like EuCAPT can play in developing theoretical astroparticle physics and cosmology in Europe?
I think that EuCAPT is making a great job in creating a community of scientists with different expertise that can interact and intersect to think about possible future research directions.
What’s your favorite food?
Lasagna.
How do you like to relax after a hard day of work?
I like to walk mostly when everything around is quite, like late in the night.
What do you hope to see accomplished scientifically in the next 50 years?
I think that the detection of dark matter, dark energy and primordial gravitational waves would give to us almost a complete understanding of our universe.