Andrew Levan

Background

About Andrew Levan

I am an astronomer with an interest in how stars end their lives. I study their ends in explosions, collapses, mergers and disruptions via the bright emission they often exhibit across and sometimes beyond the electromagnetic spectrum. Through these studies, I seek to understand the pathways that lead to these stellar deaths, probe the extreme physics at play, and use the outcomes as bright lighthouses shining to the distant Universe. My current work and some past highlights to which I have contributed include. 1) The discovery of the electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational wave source. 2) Identifying the progenitors of both long- and short-duration gamma-ray bursts. 3) Through items 1 and 2, the discovery of the first clear site for the likely production of many of the most massive elements in the periodic table, e.g. gold, platinum, uranium, etc. 4) The discovery of the most distant gamma-ray bursts, when discovered the most distant objects known in the Universe. 5) The location of relativistic tidal disruption, where supermassive black holes and their material disrupt stars and then accelerate part of their remains to near the speed of light. 6) The discovery of a new class of gamma-ray bursts that last for hours rather than seconds. 7) In-depth studies of the environments (for example, the host galaxies) of many transients, including gamma-ray bursts, luminous supernovae, and tidal disruption events. My work is predominantly, but not exclusively, observational and is underpinned by observational programmes with many of the world's premier observatories, including the James Webb Space Telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Very Large Telescope, the Gemini Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and others. I also play a substantial role in several collaborations. In particular, I chair the Executive Committee for the ENGRAVE consortium and am responsible for the day-to-day operations of this 250-person collaboration, which undertakes observations of gravitational wave sources. I am heavily involved in the Stargate project for the follow-up of gamma-ray bursts at the European Southern Observatory. On a broader scale, I am currently the coordinator of NOVA (Dutch Research School for Astronomy) network 3, which unites ~100 Dutch astronomers undertaking research in Extreme Astrophysics, and sit on its Instrumentation Steering Committee. I also led the construction of the 2020-2030 roadmap for Extreme Astrophysics in Europe under the Astronet programme.