Maria Edvige Ravasio

Post-doctoral Researcher /
La Caixa Fellow

Education

  • 2018 – 2022: PhD in Astrophysics with honours – University of Milano-Bicocca / INAF- Astronomical Observatory of Brera-Merate.
  • 2015 – 2018: Master's degree in Astrophysics and Space Physics – University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan.
  • 2011 – 2015: Bachelor's degree in Physics – University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan.

Research

  • December 2025 – Present: Junior Leader Fellow – "La Caixa" Foundation ( 3-year fellowship, €320,000)
    Host Institute: ICE/CSIC – Institut de Ciències de l'Espai, Barcelona, Spain
    Topic: Beyond the tip of the iceberg: uncovering the physics of jets via GRB prompt X-ray emission
  • February 2022 – December 2025: Post-doctoral Researcher – Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
    ERC-funded project 'Starstruck' on Fast X-ray Transients, awarded to Prof. Peter Jonker
  • May 2018 – July 2018: Visiting Research Fellowship – Center for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS), Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia
    Supervisor: Prof. Jeff Cooke. Contribution to the Deeper Wider Faster project

Supervision

  • September 2025 – Present: Supervision of Eduardo Gonzales Ramos (Radboud University), Master student – main supervisor (in collaboration with Prof. Peter Jonker)
  • February 2025 – August 2025: Supervision of Ansh Chopra (GSSI), PhD student – Doctoral Exchange period of 6 months funded by PNRR (in collaboration with Prof. Marica Branchesi, Dr. Biswajit Banerjee)
  • September 2022 – September 2023: Supervision of Hannah Wichern (Radboud University), Master student – main supervisor (in collaboration with Prof. Peter Jonker)
    Paper from thesis: Investigating the off-axis GRB afterglow scenario for extragalactic fast X-ray transients – Wichern H. C. I., Ravasio M. E., Jonker P. G. et al., 2024, A&A
    Winner of the Thesis Prize for Astronomy 2023 of KHMW (Royal Dutch Society of Sciences). Now PhD student at DTU, Copenhagen.

Awards

  • 2025: Junior Leader Fellow – "La Caixa" Foundation (3-year fellowship, €320,000)
  • 2025: ESA Research Fellowship (declined in favour of the La Caixa fellowship)
  • 2022: Premio Tacchini – prize for the best PhD thesis in Astrophysics, awarded by the Italian Astronomical Society (SAIt)
  • 2018: Visiting Research Fellowship – Center for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS), Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia

International Collaborations

  • Einstein Probe Collaboration
  • ENGRAVE and GRAWITA – European and Italian collaborations focused on the search for counterparts to gravitational waves
  • THESEUS Consortium
  • COSI Science Team – GRB working group
  • NewAthena WG5 – Transients and multi-messenger astrophysics working group
  • X-ray Transient Array (XTRA)
  • Einstein Telescope

Teaching Experience

  • Oct 2025: Lecture on "Relativistic Jets from Black Holes" – Course on "Black Holes and Accretion" at Radboud University (in collaboration with Prof. Peter Jonker and Prof. Monika Moscibrodzka)