Curriculum Vitae
You can download my full CV here.
Summary
I am Riccardo Gonzo, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Centre for Theoretical Physics, Queen Mary University of London. Previously, I was a postdoctoral researcher at the Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Edinburgh. My research lies at the interface of scattering amplitudes and general relativity, with the goal of developing new analytical tools for modelling gravitational-wave signals from binary black hole systems.
I obtained my PhD in Theoretical Particle Physics at Trinity College Dublin under the supervision of Prof. Ruth Britto, as part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie ITN SAGEX, with a thesis on Coherent states and classical radiative observables in the S-matrix formalism. Before that, I studied Physics at the University of Padova, where I earned both my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees cum laude.
Academic appointments
2025 – present  | Postdoctoral Research Associate Queen Mary University of London, UK |
2022 – 2025  | Postdoctoral Research Associate University of Edinburgh, UK |
Education
2018 – 2022  | PhD in Theoretical Particle Physics, Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) Thesis: Coherent states and classical radiative observables in the S-matrix formalism (link) Supervisor: Prof. Ruth Britto Marie-Curie ITN fellow (SAGEX) — training in research and professional skills (workshops, schools, 3-month Wolfram internship). |
2015 – 2017  | Master of Theoretical Physics, University of Padova (Italy) Thesis: The infinite-spin representations of the Poincaré group (link) Advisors: Prof. Karl-Henning Rehren & Prof. Pieralberto Marchetti Final grade: 110/110 cum laude GPA: 29.5/30 |
2012 – 2015 | Bachelor of Physics, University of Padova (Italy) Thesis: A theoretical and computational study of orbital angular momentum modes in optical fiber (link) Advisors: Prof. Filippo Romanato & Dr. Enrico Gazzola Final grade: 110/110 cum laude GPA: 29.6/30 |
Publications & preprints
The spinning self-force EFT: 1SF waveform recursion relation and Compton scattering
Dogan Akpinar, Vittorio Del Duca, Riccardo Gonzo, Phys. Rev. D 112, 084014 (2025) — Editor’s Suggestion.First Law of Binary Black Hole Scattering
Riccardo Gonzo, Jack Lewis, Adam Pound. Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 131401 (2025) — Editor’s Suggestion.Unexpected Symmetries of Kerr Black Hole Scattering
Dogan Akpinar, Graham R. Brown, Riccardo Gonzo, Mao Zeng. .Dirac brackets for classical radiative observables
Francesco Alessio, Riccardo Gonzo, Canxin Shi. .Scattering and Bound Observables for Spinning Particles in Kerr Spacetime with Generic Spin Orientations
Riccardo Gonzo, Canxin Shi. Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 221401 (2024).The uncertainty principle and classical amplitudes
Andrea Cristofoli, Riccardo Gonzo, Nathan Moynihan, Donal O’Connell, Alasdair Ross, Matteo Sergola, Chris D. White. JHEP 06 (2024) 181.Gravitational bound waveforms from amplitudes
Tim Adamo, Riccardo Gonzo, Anton Ilderton. JHEP 05 (2024) 034.Spinning waveforms from the Kosower–Maybee–O’Connell formalism at leading order
Stefano De Angelis, Pavel P. Novichkov, Riccardo Gonzo, Phys. Rev. D 110, L041502 (2024).Wave scattering event shapes at high energies
Riccardo Gonzo, Anton Ilderton. JHEP 10 (2023) 108.Boundary to bound dictionary for generic Kerr orbits
Riccardo Gonzo, Canxin Shi. Phys. Rev. D 108, 084065 (2023).Bethe-Salpeter equation for classical gravitational bound states
Tim Adamo, Riccardo Gonzo, JHEP 05 (2023) 088.Celestial holography on Kerr-Schild backgrounds
Riccardo Gonzo, Tristan McLoughlin, Andrea Puhm. JHEP 10 (2022) 073.Graviton particle statistics and coherent states from classical scattering amplitudes
Ruth Britto, Riccardo Gonzo, Guy R. Jehu. JHEP 03 (2022) 214.Waveforms from amplitudes
Andrea Cristofoli, Riccardo Gonzo, David A. Kosower, Donal O’Connell. Phys. Rev. D 106, 056007 (2022) — Editor’s Suggestion.Geodesics from classical double copy
Riccardo Gonzo, Canxin Shi. Phys. Rev. D 104, 105012 (2021).Light-ray operators, detectors and gravitational event shapes
Riccardo Gonzo, Andrzej Pokraka. JHEP 05 (2021) 015.Asymptotic charges and coherent states in QCD
Riccardo Gonzo, Tristan McLoughlin, Diego Medrano, Anne Spiering. Phys. Rev. D 104, 025019 (2021).BMS symmetry of celestial OPE
Shamik Banerjee, Sudip Ghosh, Riccardo Gonzo, JHEP 04 (2020) 130.
Organized conferences, schools and workshops
2026  | Organizer — Nordita program Amplitudes, Strong-Field Gravity, and Resummation Nordita Institute, Stockholm |
2025  | Organizer — 2nd Annual Workshop on Self-Force and Amplitudes (link) University of Southampton |
2024  | Organizer — Gravitational self-force and scattering amplitudes (link) Higgs Centre, University of Edinburgh |
2021  | Organizer — SAGEX amplitude school (link) NBI Institute, Copenhagen |
Talks, seminars and presentations
Worldline approach to Kerr black hole: PM vs. GSF
Contributed talk at Capra conference 2025, Southampton, UK
Dirac brackets for classical black hole scattering
Invited seminar at AEI, Berlin, Germany
Dirac brackets for classical black hole scattering: from amplitudes to observables
Invited talk at Amplitudes 2025, Seoul, South Korea
Worldline approach for Kerr black holes: PM vs GSF
Invited talk at Investigating Compact Objects and Binary Mergers with Gravitational Waves, Rome, Italy
Worldline approach for Kerr black holes: PM vs GSF
Contributed talk at Britgrav 2025, Birmingham, UK
Worldline approach for spinning bound binaries
Invited talk at First quantisation for physics in strong fields, Edinburgh, UK
S-matrix tools for bound waveform modelling
Invited talk at String Theory as a Bridge between Gauge Theory and Quantum Gravity, Rome, Italy
Insights into the scattering-to-bound map from the self-force approach
Invited seminar at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Classical bound observables from the S-matrix formalism
Invited talk at What is particle theory?, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
The on-shell space of scattering and bound classical observables
Invited seminar at NBI, Copenhagen, Denmark
On-shell maps between scattering and bound observables
Invited talk at EFT and Multi-Loop Methods for Advancing Precision in Collider and Gravitational, Garching, Germany
Shedding light on bound states with the S-matrix
Invited seminar at DFG retreat, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
Classical scattering and bound observables from the worldline approach to the two-body problem
Invited seminar at Worldline Seminars (online), Plymouth, UK
Black holes as point particles: from amplitudes to bound waveforms
Invited talk at Fundamental physics meets waveforms with LISA workshop, Potsdam, Germany
‘Light-ray operators in gauge and gravity theory: new infrared finite local observables
Invited talk at ECCF 2024 workshop, Mainz, Germany
Leader of the discussion session ‘Gravitational waves and scattering amplitudes’
Discussion session at S-matrix bootstrap 2024 workshop, Reykjavík, Iceland
From amplitudes to gravitational bound observables
Invited seminar at Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Classical bound observables from amplitudes
Invited seminar at SNS Pisa, Pisa, Italy
Scattering and bound observables for spinning particles in Kerr
Invited seminar at Higgs Centre, Edinburgh, UK
Gravitational bound waveforms from amplitudes
Invited seminar at NTNU (online), Taipei, Taiwan
Leader of the discussion session ‘Self-force and amplitudes’
Discussion session at Gravitational self-force and scattering amplitudes workshop, Edinburgh, UK
Gravitational bound waveforms from amplitudes
Invited seminar at ITMP (online), Moscow, Russia
Gravitational bound waveforms from amplitudes
Invited seminar at Joint Belgian HEPTH Seminars, Brussels, Belgium
Black holes as point particles: from amplitudes to self-force
Invited talk at Workshop JENAS Initiative: Gravitational Wave Probes of Fundamental Physics, Rome, Italy
Classical Gravitational Bound States with Amplitudes
Invited talk at General Relativity from AMPlitudes Alliance (GRAMPA), ICMS, Edinburgh, UK
Scattering and bound waveforms for Kerr black holes
Invited seminar at Sapienza, Rome, Italy
Scattering and bound waveforms for Kerr black holes
Invited seminar at Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
Spinning waveforms from classical amplitudes
Invited seminar at STAG centre, Southampton, UK
Classical Gravitational Bound States with Amplitudes
Contributed talk at New Frontiers in Theoretical Physics - XXXVII Convegno Nazionale di Fisica, Cortona, Italy
From classical scattering amplitudes to bound state observables
Invited talk at GWs meet Amplitudes workshop, São Paulo, Brazil
Boundary to bound dictionary for generic Kerr orbits
Invited seminar at IPhT, Paris, France
Shedding light on bound states with amplitudes
Invited seminar at University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Bethe-Salpeter equation for classical gravitational bound states
Invited talk at QCD meets gravity, Zurich, Switzerland
Bethe-Salpeter equation for classical bound states
Invited seminar at Higgs Centre, Edinburgh, UK
Celestial holography on non-trivial backgrounds
Invited seminar at University of Nottingham, Nottingham
Leader of the discussion session ‘Connections between gravity, classical observables’
Discussion session at Celestial amplitudes and flat space holography workshop, Corfu, Greece
Celestial holography on non-trivial backgrounds
Invited talk at Workshop on celestial amplitudes and flat space holography, Corfu, Greece
High-energy limit of quantum and classical wave scattering observables
Invited talk at Physics in Intense Fields, PIF22, Plymouth, UK
Amplitudes for the classical two-body problem in general relativity
Invited seminar at University of Padova, Padova, Italy
Classical amplitudes for the two-body problem in GR
Invited seminar at University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
An infinity of amplitude relations in classical physics
Invited talk at QCD meets gravity, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Gravitational event shapes and coherent states for gravitational waves
Invited seminar at Caltech, Pasadena, CA, USA
Coherent states from amplitudes and classical factorization
Invited seminar at Higgs Centre, Edinburgh, UK
Waveforms from the KMOC formalism and coherent states
Invited talk at GGI workshop, Florence, Italy
Waveforms from amplitudes and coherent states
Invited seminar at NBI Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark
Light-ray operators and detector algebra
Contributed talk at XVI Avogadro Meeting, Florence, Italy
OPE at null infinity
Invited seminar at TCD, Dublin, Ireland
The structure of intertwiners in the infinite spin representation
Invited seminar at University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
Outreach & Public Engagement
- Film “Doing a PhD in Physics” (2023) — Contributed personal video footage to the documentary Doing a PhD in Physics, aimed at showcasing the experiences and challenges of doctoral students to a broad audience. Watch here
- SAGEX Online Exhibition (2021) — Created content for the Feynman diagram section of the particle physics exhibition, designed to introduce the role of particle physics to the general public. Explore here
Honors and awards
- Funding award of £16.4k for the organization of the Nordita program Amplitudes, Strong-Field Gravity, and Resummation (2025)
- Funding award of £10.4k for the organization of the workshop Gravitational Self-Force and Amplitudes at the Higgs Centre, University of Edinburgh (2023)
- Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant “SAGEX” from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme (2019) — Scattering Amplitudes: from Geometry to Experiments
- First place, “Riccardo Rossi” scholarship (2011), awarded by Associazione Nemesis, Italy
Supervision
- Co-supervision of one PhD student at Sapienza University of Rome (Emanuele Rosi), with Vittorio Del Duca.
- Supervision of one MSc thesis at Sapienza University of Rome (Andrea de Simone), with Vittorio Del Duca — Gravitational self-force from scattering amplitudes.
- Supervision of one MSc thesis at Sapienza University of Rome (Damiano Barcaro), with Vittorio Del Duca — Scattering waveforms for Kerr black holes from the soft expansion (→ PhD at Mainz University).
- Supervision of one MSc thesis at the University of Edinburgh (Leixi Wang) — Classical spacetimes from amplitudes.