Massimo Gaspari, Ph.D.
Astrophysicist
INAF OAS
I am a permanent Researcher at the INAF Astrophysics and Space Science Observatory. I have been working for over a decade mainly in the field of Theoretical and Computational Astrophysics focusing on the formation and evolution of galaxies and groups/clusters of galaxies, and the co-evolution of supermassive black holes. I love to study the astrophysics of active galactic nuclei (AGN) feeding/feedback, diffuse plasmas, and multiphase gas. I primarily develop and carry out 3D high-resolution MHD simulations with massively parallel supercomputers (>10k cores), and use first-principle simulations as controlled astrophysical experiments to understand a large range of multiwavelength observations (X-ray, optical/IR, radio), while constructing and probing new quantitative physical models.
Research Activity
α Theoretical & Numerical Astrophysics: formation and evolution of galaxies, groups, clusters.
β Astrophysics of (supermassive) black holes and accreting objects.
γ Multiphase gas astrophysics: instabilities, warm filaments, molecular clouds, dust, metals.
δ AGN feedback (jets, outflows, radiation) versus cooling flows and star formation.
ε Astrophysical plasmas (ICM, IGrM, CGM/ISM): MHD, turbulence, conduction, shocks.
ζ Quantiative comparison with multiwavelength observations (X-ray, optical/IR, radio).
Research Methods
η High-resolution 3D magneto-hydrodynamic simulations.
θ Independent developer of several physical and numerical modules (e.g., for FLASH).
κ Adaptive mesh refinement and cloud-in-cell particles (dark matter, stars, BHs).
λ Massive parallelization and optimization for HPC supercomputers (e.g., NASA Pleiades).
Research Portfolio
• 120 publications: ~5000 citations; h-index 40
• $3.8 million funding + 107 million CPU-hrs ($2.4 million) allocated
• 54 invited talks and colloquia (100+ presentations)
• 75 accepted observing programs (200+ proposals)