Andrea Sylvia Biscoveanu

About Andrea Sylvia Biscoveanu

Andrea (Sylvia) Biscoveanu is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Princeton University. A member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, her research focuses on probing astrophysics and cosmology with gravitational wave data. Specifically, she uses Bayesian inference techniques to learn about the properties of compact-object mergers, their electromagnetic counterparts, and the stochastic gravitational wave background. 

Previously, she was a NASA Einstein Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern's Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics. Sylvia received her PhD in Physics from MIT in June 2023 where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a PEO Scholar. Before starting her PhD, she was a Fulbright Postgraduate Fellow at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. As an undergraduate student at Penn State, she presented her research internationally in Spain, Argentina, and Australia, and her work in astrophysics earned her a Barry Goldwater Scholarship and an Astronaut Scholarship. 

Born in Philadelphia, Sylvia is the daughter of Romanian immigrants. Fearing for their safety after participating in the anti-communist revolution of 1989, her parents left behind their families and their careers in pursuit of increased freedom and opportunity in the United States. Knowing that her family lived without basic civil rights in Romania has given Sylvia a deeper appreciation of the liberties afforded by the US Constitution, and watching her parents struggle to create a name for themselves in the US has taught her the value of dedication and hard work.