Welcome new staff member in the Department of Physics: Dr Denis Tramonte

March 20, 2023

The Department of Physics at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University is excited to welcome new staff member Denis Tramonte, whose main research interest is observational cosmology.

Having him on board, the School can further improve the teaching quality, expand the faculty capacity, and provide an excellent education for our programmes.

Dr Denis Tramonte
Assistant Professor

Modules

PHY002 (Physics)

Career

Dr Tramonte began his research at the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics (IAC) in Tenerife, Spain, where he obtained his PhD from the University of La Laguna in 2017.

I had the opportunity, during my PhD, to spend some nights operating different telescopes in the European Northern Observatory, in the Spanish Canary Islands. It is such an exciting experience to be in charge of using the most advanced equipment we have on Earth to explore the cosmos.

Telescopes at the European Northern Observatory, on the island of La Palma (Spain), at sunrise

He was later a Claude Leon Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN, South Africa) and a CAS-PIFI Postdoctoral Fellow at the Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO) in Nanjing, China. He has joined the Department of Physics at XJTLU in 2023 as an Assistant Professor.

Research interests

In Dr Tramonte‘s research, he studies how galaxies and the diffuse gas that surrounds them are distributed across different structures in the cosmic web.

Recently Dr Tramonte has been particularly focused on galaxy clusters, which are groups of hundreds of galaxies held together by the local strong gravity generated by dark matter; these clusters are typically found at the nodes of the cosmic web, which host a lot of different physical processes.

Reason to join XJTLU

“XJTLU is a very special institution in China. its devotion to internationalization is quite unique and is in fact one of the best traits to look for in an institution if you are a scientific researcher. ”

Dr Tramonte believes that doing research in astrophysics is to break the current boundaries of our knowledge and extend our understanding of the Universe we live in.

“It is clear that XJTLU has a strong commitment to research, innovation, and involvement with the industry, as it is clear from its very diverse academic offer and all the opportunities that it provides to apply for grants and collaborations with external institutions.”

Advice for students

Being knowledgeable in physics, math, occasionally computing and coding, as well as having a keen interest in the cosmos, are necessary for conducting astrophysics research.

“I believe the best advice for students would be to follow their interests, to do research in what really interests them.”

By Qinru Liu

Images courtesy of Dr Denis Tramonte

March 20, 2023