federica bianco

Dr. Bianco is a Professor at the University of Delaware in the Physics and Astronomy Department, Biden School of Public Policy and Administration, and Data Science Institute. She built her unusual career by letting her passions and her desire to learn new things guide her: trained as an astrophysicist, she splits her time between unveiling the secret of the Universe, finding new ways to improve quality of life in cities, and fighting in the ring. As an astrophysics she studies astronomical transients, things that change in the night sky, from solar system objects passing in front of background stars to explosions at the edge of the known Universe. As the Coordinator of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Science Collaborations she is creating a network of over 1500 scientists as they prepare to study the night skies through the largest, most complex astrophysical dataset to date. The telescope will come online in 2023 and it will observe the whole southern sky every few days from the mountains of Chile, to unprecedented depths and spatial resolution. The sky that to our naked eye looks like a static painted celestial volt is the site of continuous, tumultuous, dramatic changes which a telescope as powerful as this can reveal. Dr. Bianco will focus on understanding the nature of the millions of things that change every night in the night sky. The potential for discovery is transformational! When Dr. Bianco turns her instruments to study urban environments she works on developing new ways to predict energy needs and measure pollution that are accessible to all economies, not just the richest countries, and uses her data skills to improve the prosecutorial justice system. Outside of academia, Dr. Bianco is known as the Madscientist; she is a professional boxer in the bantamweight class, with a record of 4-1, 2KOs (not bad for a geek!).