PPGCosmo Highlights

Since its creation in 2016, PPGCosmo has established itself as a center of excellence in research and education, fostering significant scientific achievements by its students and faculty. The faculty includes CNPq research fellows (levels 1 and 2), researchers listed among the Top 2% Scientists in the World, and affiliated members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC). This document presents these achievements in chronological order. Last updated: 4/3/2026.

2026

• A faculty member received the 2nd Women and Science Award, granted by CNPq, in the category Encouragement in the area of Exact, Earth and Engineering Sciences. The award recognizes her scientific contributions and her work promoting women’s participation in science.

• A faculty member was recognized on the prestigious American Physical Society (APS) Outstanding Referees list for 2026, in acknowledgment of the excellence, quality, and timeliness of his peer reviews for the Physical Review journals.

2025

• A faculty member, as coordinator, contributed to the restoration and reopening of the Astronomical Observatory of the School of Mines in Ouro Preto.

• A faculty member published in Physical Review Letters an article presenting a new method to understand dynamical tides in neutron stars with first-order phase transitions.

• A student received a FAPES fellowship to undertake an academic visit to Silesian University in Opava, Czechia.

• An alumnus used the latest DESI Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) data to demonstrate that local cosmological inhomogeneities can offer an alternative explanation for the so-called “phantom crossing” of dark energy. The work was published in Physical Review D and highlighted as an Editors’ Suggestion.

• A faculty member was one of the recipients of the Jacob Palis Award, granted by the Brazilian Academy of Sciences in partnership with the Fulbright Commission. The recognition was awarded for the project “Cross-Domain AI Innovation in Anomaly Detection,” which connects artificial intelligence applications in time-domain astronomy and personalized healthcare.

• A faculty member received the SBF–ES Physics Distinction Award, in international recognition of his contributions to cosmology, especially in studies of dark matter, dark energy, and alternative models of the universe.

• A faculty member received the IAU STEM Ambassador Recognition Award for her efforts toward gender balance, regularly promoting awareness actions, funding initiatives, training programs, and publications on the topic. 

• A faculty member is leading the organization of the LSST – Strong Lens Data Challenge, which aims to apply artificial intelligence and computer vision techniques to the detection and modeling of strong gravitational lenses in simulated and real data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, preparing algorithms for the LSST era.

• The work of a faculty member who used gravitational lensing to measure the mass of the black hole at the center of the Cosmic Horseshoe galaxy was featured in a Science magazine article.

• An alumnus and a faculty member published in Physical Review Letters an article presenting a new method to understand the effect of nonlinear structures in cosmology. This work was highlighted by the Brazilian Physical Society (SBF).

• A permanent faculty member and a collaborating faculty member are currently serving as editors of the special issue of the journal Universe, celebrating its 10th anniversary.

• A permanent faculty member and a collaborating faculty member published an article in Physical Review Letters, on a new technique to measure the spatial curvature of the Universe in a more robust and model-independent way. This work was highlighted by the Brazilian Physical Society (SBF).

• A faculty member published an article in Physical Review Letters, on recent results from the CONNIE experiment, which aims to test physics beyond the standard model. The new, more stringent low-energy limits for fractional-charge models were enabled by the 2021 upgrade, with the installation of next-generation CCDs with substantial contribution from CBPF.

• A student received a CONFAP fellowship to undertake an academic visit to the University of Zaragoza, Spain.

• A student received a FAPES fellowship to undertake an academic visit to Aix-Marseille Université, France.

• A student received a FAPES fellowship to undertake an academic visit to the ELI Beamlines Laboratory, Czechia. During the visit, he was awarded best poster at the ExHILP 2025 conference.

• A student received a FAPES fellowship to undertake an academic visit to the University of Oviedo, Spain.

• A student received a fellowship from the University of Science and Technology of China for an academic visit.

• A student received a FAPES fellowship to undertake an academic visit to the Astronomical Observatory of Trieste, Italy.

• A student received a FAPES fellowship to undertake an academic visit to CBPF, another FAPES fellowship to participate in an event at the University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy), and a CONFAP fellowship to develop a collaboration at the University of Pisa (Italy) with Prof. Marozzi.

2024

• An alumna published an article in Physical Review Letters with the first detection of the correlation between cosmic shear and the diffuse X-ray background, revealing how gas is distributed around dark-matter clusters. The article was featured in a Synopsis published by the American Physical Society’s Physics Magazine.

• A faculty member and his postdoctoral researcher published an article in JHEAP identifying 3XMM J185246.6+003317 as a possible massive magnetar with a low surface magnetic field, suggesting new scenarios for stellar structure and ultradense matter.

• An alumnus of the Program was invited to join the editorial board of The Open Journal of Astrophysics.

• A faculty member published an article in Physical Review Letters, making a significant contribution to astrophysics and multi-messenger studies. This work was highlighted by the Brazilian Physical Society (SBF).

• A faculty member published an article in Physical Review Letters, advancing studies on black-hole physics.

• An alumnus secured a permanent position as Adjunct Researcher I at CBPF.

• A faculty member served as editor of the Handbook of Quantum Gravity, published by Springer.

• A faculty member received the Carolina Nemes Award, granted by the Brazilian Physical Society for her exceptional contributions.

• A faculty member published an article in Nature on the unprecedented observation of a kilonova explosion associated with a long-duration gamma-ray burst, possibly resulting from the collision between a neutron star and a black hole outside the Milky Way. This work was highlighted by the Brazilian Physical Society (SBF).

• A student received a FAPES fellowship to undertake an academic visit to the Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía, Argentina.

• A student received an ICTP (Trieste) fellowship to undertake an academic visit to ICTP, Italy.

• A student received a fellowship from the University of Science and Technology of China for an academic visit.

2023

• Research by a faculty member, published in ApJ, identified a new class of astrophysical sources with intermediate characteristics between novae and supernovae, potentially detectable by LSST; the work was highlighted by SBF and INPE, and received international coverage.

• A faculty member received the Anselmo Salles Paschoa Award from the Brazilian Physical Society for her outstanding scientific contributions.

• A PhD student received the ICTP-SAIFR Prize in Classical Gravity and Applications 2023 for the best doctoral thesis. The same student received honorable mentions in the CAPES Thesis Award and won the José Leite Lopes Award for Best PhD Thesis from the Brazilian Physical Society.

• Another PhD student received an honorable mention in the ICTP-SAIFR Prize.

• A student received a FAPES fellowship to undertake an academic visit to the Federal University of Ouro Preto, MG.

2022

• A faculty member published an innovative work on black holes in Physical Review Letters: SBF announcement.

• A faculty member was part of the winning team of an international challenge on automated detection of gravitational arcs, with results described in an article published in MNRAS.

• A faculty member served as editor of Multiphase Flow Dynamics: A Perspective from the Brazilian Academy and Industry, published by Springer.

• A faculty member served as editor of the Special Issue Challenges of This Century in High-Density Compact Objects, High-Energy Astrophysics, and Multi-Messenger Observations. Quo Vadis? in the journal Galaxies, celebrating the 55th anniversary of the discovery of the first pulsar, with participation of renowned national and international researchers.

• An alumna of PPGCosmo was awarded the Newton International Fellowship at the University of Oxford, England.

• An alumnus of PPGCosmo was awarded the Humboldt Research Fellowship at the University of Potsdam, Germany.

2021

• A doctoral thesis received an honorable mention in the ICTP-SAIFR Prize.

• A faculty member published the book Introduction to Quantum Field Theory with Applications to Quantum Gravity with Oxford University Press.

• A student was appointed spokesperson for the Brazilian Participation Group in LSST.

• A faculty member published the article Spinning Black Holes Fall in Love in Physical Review Letters, selected as an Editors' Suggestion and featured in Physics.

• Two faculty members published the book Gravitation with the Editora Livraria da Física.

2020

• The program launched the inaugural issue of the journal Cadernos de Astronomia.

• A faculty member published the article Ethnic and Regional Variations in Hospital Mortality from COVID-19 in Brazil in The Lancet Global Health.

• A faculty member published the book Hamiltonian Formulation of General Relativity and Applications with the Editora Livraria da Física.

• A faculty member received the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship for a sabbatical period at the Astronomical Observatory of Trieste.

2019

• A faculty member published the article Static Two-Body Potential at Fifth Post-Newtonian Order in Physical Review Letters.

• A faculty member published the book A Primer in Tensor Analysis and Relativity with Springer.

• A faculty member became PI of the Brazilian Participation Group in LSST.

• A student received an APS/SBF fellowship to undertake an academic visit to the University of California, United States.

• A student received a DAAD fellowship to undertake an academic visit to Heidelberg University, Germany.

2018

• Two faculty members published the article Absence of a Fundamental Acceleration Scale in Galaxies in Nature Astronomy.

• A faculty member was awarded the Humboldt Fellowship to work at Heidelberg University.

• A faculty member published the book Lecture Notes in Cosmology with Springer.

• A faculty member became coordinator of the Large Scale Structure science group of the J-PAS collaboration.

• A student received an APS/SBF fellowship to undertake an academic visit to Carnegie Mellon University, United States.

2017

• A faculty member published the article Quantum Backreaction on Three-Dimensional Black Holes and Naked Singularities in Physical Review Letters, featured in Physics.

• A faculty member was recognized on the prestigious American Physical Society (APS) Outstanding Referees list for 2017, in acknowledgment of the excellence, quality, and timeliness of his peer reviews for the Physical Review journals.