Heising-Simons Foundation (HSF) Collaboration
on Quantum Gravity
and Its Observational Signatures
(QuRIOS)

Bruno Bucciotti

Arizona State University

Bruno is a Heising-Simons Fellow at Arizona State University. His research spans a wide range of topics in theoretical physics, from black hole phenomenology to formal aspects of quantum field theory (for example resurgence). A central focus of his work is the ringdown phase following black hole mergers, in particular the role of quadratic quasi-normal modes and their potential detectability with gravitational wave observations. More recently, he has also been interested in the formal definition of observables in quantum gravity. Bruno received his PhD in 2025 from Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa.

Temple M. He

Caltech

I grew up in Michigan and did my undergraduate studies at Stanford University. I then attended University of Cambridge for a masters degree on a Marshall scholarship, and finally completed my PhD under the guidance of Andrew Strominger at Harvard University. My research focuses on a better understanding of quantum gravity, utilizing tools from both holography and quantum information theory.

Marc Klinger

Caltech

Marc’s research focuses on connecting formal theory with observable signatures in quantum gravity. He studies the interplay between symmetry (including advances in non-invertible symmetries), constraints (especially involving diffeomorphism invariance and background independence), and measures of quantum information/entanglement. His recent work develops new approaches to the quantization of gravity on null hypersurfaces, with the goal of capturing the effects of geometric fluctuations. Marc received his BA from the University of Pennsylvania and his PhD at the University of Illinois under the supervision of Rob Leigh. He is currently a Heising-Simons Fellow at Caltech.

Madhur Mehta

UC Santa Barbara

Madhur Mehta is a Heising-Simons Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Santa Barbara, originally from Jaipur, India. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics from The Ohio State University, where he was a Presidential Fellow under the mentorship of Prof. Samir Mathur. His research investigates the quantum nature of black holes, the information paradox, and extremely compact objects (ECOs), with an emphasis on bridging high-energy theory and astrophysical observations. Madhur is especially interested in identifying observable signatures of quantum gravitational effects in the cosmos, particularly around black holes. He also shares his passion for theoretical physics through his website and YouTube channel, Time Before Space.

Richard M. Myers

University of Amsterdam

Richard's research interests lie in quantum gravity and field theory, the symmetries of nature, and the possible observational effects of both. His recent work has primarily focused on using the tools of asymptotic symmetries and holography to better understand the perturbative structure of symmetries from the perspective of S-matrix scattering processes. He received a double BS in physics and mathematics from Hofstra University and his PhD from UCLA under the supervision of Per Kraus. He is currently a Heising-Simons Fellow at the University of Amsterdam.

Carlos Perez Pardavila

Arizona State University

Carlos Perez Pardavila is a Heising-Simons Fellow at Arizona State University. His research lies at the intersection of high-energy theory, quantum gravity, and mathematical physics. He has worked on systematic approaches to Seiberg–Witten theory through Hitchin systems and on the black hole information paradox, focusing on the island resolution. More recently, he is interested in broader aspects of holography and the AdS/CFT correspondence, along with other directions in mathematical physics. Carlos received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin in 2025.

Anthony Speranza

University of Amsterdam

My research deals with understanding diffeomorphism-invariant observables in quantum gravity. I am specifically interested in approaches to this problem from the perspective of quantum information theory. Much of my recent research looks to gain new insights into gravitational entropy using the theory of operator algebras. I received a BS from MIT and completed my Ph.D. at the University of Maryland under the supervision of Ted Jacobson. I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam, having previously completed postdocs at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Lars Aalsma

Lars is currently a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Minnesota Duluth. His research lies at the intersection of string theory and cosmology with a focus on the observational signatures of quantum gravity in cosmology. Using techniques from holography, quantum information theory and black hole physics he studies models of quantum gravity and explores their cosmological footprints. Before joining Arizona State University as a Heising-Simons Fellow, Lars held a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison after he obtained his PhD from the University of Amsterdam.

Kwinten Fransen

In my research, I investigate gravity at the interface between theory and experiment. I am particularly excited about gravitational wave astronomy, which was the subject of my PhD at the KU Leuven (in Belgium).

Dominik Neuenfeld

Dominik is currently a Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Würzburg. Dominik's work aims at a better understanding of quantum gravity by investigating the infrared structure of gauge theories and gravity, as well as studying the AdS/CFT correspondence through a quantum information-theoretic lens. Most recently, he used doubly-holographic models to understand how semi-classical gravity emerges from quantum gravity. Dominik obtained his PhD from the University of British Columbia. Before he joined the string theory group in Amsterdam as a Heising-Simons Fellow, he was a Simons "It from Qubit"-Fellow at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.

Ana-Maria Raclariu

Ana-Maria Raclariu is a Lecturer in Theoretical Physics in the Department of Mathematics at King's College London. Her research covers a range of topics in classical and quantum gravity, with a focus on holographic aspects of gravity in asymptotically flat spacetimes. Originally from Romania, she attended the University of Cambridge before completing her Ph.D. at Harvard University under the supervision of Andrew Strominger. She was a Stephen Hawking postdoctoral fellow at Perimeter Institute and a QuRIOS and MCSA postdoctoral fellow at the University of Amsterdam before joining King’s College in 2024.

Allic Sivaramakrishnan

Allic’s research aims to build perturbative tools for quantum gravity. His work focuses on the AdS/CFT correspondence, a precise realization of the holographic principle, and uses ideas from scattering amplitudes, quantum information theory, and the conformal bootstrap. His recent work developed principles of curved-space perturbation theory by extending unitarity methods, on-shell kinematics, and color-kinematics duality to curved spacetimes. Allic received his BA from UC Berkeley and PhD from UCLA, and he joins Caltech as a Heising-Simons fellow.

Raphaela Wutte

Raphaela is currently a Heising-Simons Fellow at Arizona State University. Raphaela's research revolves around both classical and quantum aspects of gravity, combining varied methods from mathematical general relativity, asymptotic symmetries and the AdS/CFT correspondence. Raphaela obtained her PhD in 2022 from TU Wien, Austria. Before joining Arizona State University as a Heising-Simons Fellow, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Université Libre de Brussels, Belgium.

Claire Zukowski

I am a researcher in quantum gravity. I exploit the AdS/CFT duality to study the emergence of gravity from field theory, using varied tools from quantum information, gauge theory and symplectic geometry. Much of my research aims towards better understanding gravity in de Sitter spacetime, which approximates our current expanding cosmology. Some of my work also addresses paradoxes in eternal inflation, the infinite exponential expansion of regions of spacetime at extremely late times. I completed my Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley in 2015 and was a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University and the University of Amsterdam. I spent a semester at ASU as the collaboration was starting, and am currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota Dublin. In addition to my research, I have a strong interest in teaching as well as diversity in STEM.