Michele Bianco Webpage

About Me

I am an astrophysicist and cosmologist, currently a Postdoctoral researcher in the Cosmology group at ETH Zurich, part of the Radio Astronomy and Cosmology group led by Prof. Alexandre Refregier.

My main focus is the study of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) and Post-Reionization (Post-EoR). Using Radiative Transfer codes combined with hydrodynamical N-body simulations, I model the formation of primordial ionizing sources to understand how they influenced the cosmological 21-cm signal during and after reionization.

I am also interested in instrumental simulations of the 21-cm signal to qualitatively understand the observational response of radio interferometry experiments, such as the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

My research also includes the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to accelerate and enhance numerical simulations, improve cosmological and astrophysical inference, and mitigate foreground contamination in radio interferometry for 21-cm observations.

I have been a member of the SKA Swiss Consortium (SKACH) since Switzerland became a member of the SKA Observatory in 2021.

Research

List of projects that I took part or that are still going on.

PINION Network
Improving EoR simulations with Physic Informed Nerual Network

DECI-14: Recombination
Modelling inhomogeneous clumping factor for subgrid recombination

AI with 21cm
Detect and recover 21-cm from SKA-Low tomographic images

from EoR to Post-EoR
Simulating the 21-cm signal transitioning from EoR to Post-EoR

SKA Data Challenge 3
Results from the SKACH team partecipating at the Foreground challenge

pyC²Ray code
A GPU accellerated RT code for large scale EoR simulations

Updated: Dec, 2th 2024

Experience

PostDoc in Astrophysics

2024 - to date

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETHZ), Switzerland

• Awarded funding for Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing (PASC) 2025-2028.
Project title: "Accellerate Radiative Transfer simulation for SKA"

PostDoc in Astrophysics

2021 - 2024

Ecole Polytecnique de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland

• Development of more realistic simulations of radio interferometry telescope for EoR 21-cm observations.
• Development of the SERENEt neural network to mitigate foreground contamination in 21-cm tomographic observations.
• Development of a flexible and GPU-accelerated Radiative Transfer (RT) algorithm.
• Development of Physics-Informed Neural Network (PINN) to accelerate and improve Epoch of Reionization (EoR) simulations.

Doctorate in Astrophysics

2017 - 2021

University of Sussex, United Kingdom (Link to my thesis)

• Implemented a stochastic, density dependent clumping model to account for sub-grid inhomogeneity in C2-Ray for EoR simulations.
• Developed a Deep Learning approach for the detection of neutral hydrogen regions in 21-cm tomographic images of SKA-Low.

Master Degree in Astrophysics

2015 - 2017

Ludwig-Maximillians-University LMU Munich, Germany (Link to my thesis)

Using the PINOCCHIO Lagrangian code, I studied the statistical evolution of Halo Number Counts (HNC) variance and its observational impact on the large-scale structure correlation in galaxy surveys such as eROSITA, DES, and Euclid.

Bachelor of Science in Physics & Mathematics

2011 - 2014

University of Fribourg UNIFR, Switzerland

Bachelor degree in theoretical Physics (150 ECTS) and Mathematics (30 ECTS).

Interests

Photos of me during conferences and my free time.

Useful Links

The Epoch of Reionization - Prof. Saleem Zaroubi
Online lecutre about the Epoch of Reionization and the Cosmic Dawn.

Cosmic Reionization Group in India - Prof. Somnath Bharadwaj
Four video lectures on "21cm Physics and Cosmology".

Introduction to HPSC - Victor Eijkhout
Online book on introduction to high-performance scientific computing.