Boyuan Liu

Welcome!

I am a postdoc at the Center for Astronomy of Heidelberg University (ZAH) working in the group of Prof. Michela Mapelli as part of the Excellence Cluster STRUCTURES program.

Before moving to Heidelberg, I was a postdoc at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge from 2022 to 2024, working with Prof. Anastasia Fialkov, where I was also affiliated with Trinity Hall as a PDRA.

I gained my PhD degree from the University of Texas at Austin with the mentorship of  Prof. Volker Bromm (dissertation: Probing the Nature of Dark Matter with the First Stars and Black Holes). 

I use semi-analytical models and numerical simulations to predict the properties of the first generation of stars, black holes, star clusters, and galaxies in the Universe, to shed light on their roles in early cosmic evolution and unique signatures in multi-messenger observations (e.g., star formation histories and galaxy metal scaling relations of high-z galaxies, the 21-cm signal from neutral hydrogen, reionization, gravitational waves from compact object mergers, abundance patterns of metal-poor stars/nebulae, seeding and growth of supermassive black holes). I am interested in what we can learn from these ancient objects about fundamental physics, such as the nature of dark matter, dark energy, and gravity.

See my CV, the Research page, and my publication list for details of my research. The page Recent summarizes my most recent work. 

When not doing research, I love hiking, swimming, playing badminton, and building Gundam kits. See my Instagram for pictures of Gundam models.