Pacucci awarded Livio Gratton prize
Fabio Pacucci, Yale postdoctoral associate, has been awarded the Livio Gratton prize for the best PhD thesis in astronomy from an Italian institution for his dissertation The First Black Holes in the Cosmic Dark Ages (supervisor: Andrea Ferrara, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa).
According to the notice of the prize, the dissertation “contains important original results about the formation of Black Holes in the Early Universe. In particular, the thesis analyzes in detail accretion physics onto Direct Collapse Black Holes that are considered the seeds of the SupermassiveBlack Holes observed after the reioniziation.”
Additionally, “Dr. Pacucci has an impressive number of publications considering his young age. In about 4 years he co-authored 19 refereed papers, for 10 of which he is the leading author. He has already collected more than 300 citations. He has a vast scientific culture which is reflected in the broad spectrum of scientific topics in his publications, from galaxies to planets. The quality of his work is recognized internationally since he is constantly invited to present papers at conferences and to give seminars at the main European and North American institutions. Moreover, he has recently obtained a prestigious postdoctoral position at Yale University.”