| Răzvan B alașov Bucharest, Romania +40734424127 rabalasov@spacescience.ro LinkedIn

Facebook

Skills

Flexibility and Adaptability

Computer Science

Ability to Work Under Pressure

Critical thinking

Problem solving

Communication Skills

Entrepreneurial Skills

Frontend Development

Creativity

Teamwork

Project planning

Languages

English

Romanian

French

German

Japanese

Hobbies

Basketball

Playing musical instruments

Karate

Skateboarding

Cooking

Graphic art

Research Experience

Research Assistant – Institute of Space Science (ISS), Bucharest-M ăgurele, Romania

October 2017 – present

· Main research topics: Massive Black Holes (MBHs) growth and evolution, Mass Determinations for MBHs, MBHs Mass Catalogs

Physicist – Horia Hulubei National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering
(IFIN-HH), Bucharest-M ăgurele, Romania

October 2016 – October 2017

· Main Research Topic: developing a new instrument for generating multicharged copper ion beams

Education

Doctoral School of Physics – Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, Romania

October 2017 – present

· Direction: Atomic and Nuclear Physics, Elementary Particles, Astrophysics and Applications

Master’s Degree Programme – Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, Romania

October 2015 – June 2017

· Program of study: Atomic Physics, Nuclear Physics, Elementary Particles, Astrophysics and Applications

Bachelor’s Degree Programme – Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, Romania

October 2010 – June 2014

· Program of study: Physics

Teaching Activity

Physics Teacher – Middle School No. 163, Bucharest, Romania

October 2021 – present

· Educational stages: Middle School

Mentor - Science and Technology Summer School, Bucharest-M ăgurele, Romania

August 2021 – September 2021

· Research subject: Quantum neural networks with applications in Astrophysics

Mentor - Science and Technology Summer School, Bucharest-M ăgurele, Romania

August 2019 – September 2019

· Research subject: Stars and stellar evolution. Simulations and new methods for plotting scientific data using Virtual Reality (VR)

Teaching Assistant – Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, Romania

October 2018 – February 2019

· Study Programme: Bachelor

· Discipline: Fundamentals of Atomic Physics

Mentor - Science and Technology Summer School, Bucharest-M ăgurele, Romania

August 2018 – September 2018

· Research subject: Galaxies and Black Holes

Physics Tutor – The Centre for Private Lessons and Personal Development, Bucharest, Romania

January 2017 – August 2019

· Educational stages: Middle School, High School, College admissions

Management & Organizational skills

Co-organizer – Coordination meeting on the Gravitational Wave Astrophysics for Early Career Scientists group organization, Online

September 2021

· Aims: The Workshop on Gravitational Wave Astrophysics for Early Career Scientists (GWÆCS) is designed to build networks across different communities and advance the professional development of early career scientists (ECSs) working on gravitational waves (GWs). This meeting was planned during the May workshop conclusion session with a clear goal of setting an organizational direction for the GWÆCS group.

Co-organizer – Researcher’s Night 2021, Bucharest & M ăgurele, Romania

September 2021

· Description: The European Researchers' Night takes place yearly, typically starting on the last Friday of the month of September. Supported main events can last up to two full days: they can start on Friday and continue the following day. It is the occasion for a Europe-wide public and media event for the promotion of research careers, in particular towards young people and their families.

Co-organizer – LISA Early Career Scientists Group Mentorship Program, Online

July 2021 - present

· Description: The European Researchers' Night takes place yearly, typically starting on the last Friday of the month of September. Supported main events can last up to two full days: they can start on Friday and continue the following day. It is the occasion for a Europe-wide public and media event for the promotion of research careers, in particular towards young people and their families.

Co-organizer and Session co-chair – Workshop on Gravitational Wave Astrophysics for Early Career Scientists, Online

May 2021

· Guests: full list here

· Aims: The Workshop on Gravitational Wave Astrophysics for Early Career Scientists (GWÆCS) is designed to build networks across different communities and advance the professional development of early career scientists (ECSs) working on gravitational waves (GWs).

Project Representative (for ISS as a partner institution) – ReCoN-nect - The Green Deal: Research communication to CommuNities

January 2021 – present

· EU funding programme: H2020

· Aims: A highly innovative concept of European Researchers' Night (ERN) rooted in long experience with the program and well supported by the partner’s institutions, which will be implemented in a nationwide campaign comprising 21 events and more than 50 pre-events in urban areas of different sizes ranging from 10000 to 3 million inhabitants from Romania. Three UNESCO or aspiring geoparks will organize events in rural areas, participation from other rural areas will be encouraged by means of national contests, transportation aid or a live broadcasted program of the main events.

Co-chair – LISA Early Career Scientists Group

January 2021 – present

· Chairs: Thomas Kupfer, Valeriya Korol, R ăzvan Balașov

· Group Description: The Early Career Scientist Group is an entity inside the LISA Consortium, which intends to gather consortium members at an early stage of their careers (PhD students, postdocs, assistant professors, etc) and provide a safe environment for discussion, share of experience, and personal/professional growth.

Co-organizer – LISA Early Career Scientists Group Job Fair, Online

November 2020

· Organizers: Christine Simpson, Thomas Kupfer, R ăzvan Balașov

· Aims: The First Job fair organized by LECS (LISA Early Career Scientists Group), designated to gather employers and students in online breakout rooms, as a chance for a fast, direct and informal contact between the two interested parties.

Co-organizer – JWST Master Class: a local workshop in ROMANIA, Bucharest-M ăgurele, Romania

February 2020

· Organizers: R ăzvan Balașov, Bogdan Dumitru, Laurențiu Caramete

· Guests: Marco Sirianni – Scientific Operations Development Manager ESA JWST, Tim Rawle – NIRSpec Instrument & Calibration Expert JWST, Sandor Kruk – Expert Galactic Training and Evolution ESA

· Aims: The purpose of the whole event was to familiarize the scientific community with the James Web Space Telescope (JWST) mission, as well as training the interested persons, both theoretically and practically, in the process of applying for observation time.

Presentations

Presenter / Co-presenter – GWÆCS Meeting, Online

September 2021

· Sections: Coordination of LECS (co-presenter), LECS Job Fair (presenter)

Co-presenter – LISA Consortium Call, Online

September 2021

· Sections: Coordination and updates of LECS

Presenter – Bucharest University Faculty of Physics 2021 Meeting, Online

June 2021

· Section: Social talk

· Title: LECS overview

Co-presenter – Workshop on Gravitational Wave Astrophysics for Early Career Scientists, Online

May 2021

· Section: Atomic and Molecular Physics. Astrophysics. Applications

· Title: New growth mechanism for black holes and implications for future gravitational wave experiments

Co-author – 43rd COSPAR Scientific Assembly 2021, Online

February 2021

· Section: Fundamental Physics in Space - Gravitational Wave Astrophysics

· Title: Study of the first populations of black holes in the context of gravitational wave observations

Presenter – 13th International LISA Symposium, Online

September 2020

· Section: Science – Supermassive Black Holes

· Title: Simulations and analysis of the first black hole populations

Co-author – 13th International LISA Symposium, Online

September 2020

· Section: Science – Algorithms

· Title: Characterization of GW Signals using Neural Networks, in the Context of a Low-Latency Pipeline

Presenter – JWST Master Class: a local workshop in ROMANIA, Bucharest-M ăgurele, Romania

February 2020

· Section: Observational instruments

· Title: Imaging & Coronagraphy

Presenter – Bucharest University Faculty of Physics 2019 Meeting, Bucharest-M ăgurele, Romania

June 2019

· Section: Atomic and Molecular Physics. Astrophysics. Applications

· Title: Simulations and analysis of the first black hole populations

Presenter – Bucharest University Faculty of Physics 2018 Meeting, Bucharest-M ăgurele, Romania

June 2018

· Section: Atomic and Molecular Physics. Astrophysics. Applications

· Title: Massive black hole mass determinations

Presenter – Bucharest University Faculty of Physics 2017 Meeting, Bucharest-M ăgurele, Romania

June 2017

· Section: Atomic and Molecular Physics. Astrophysics. Applications

· Title: Multicharged copper ion generation using ECRIS

Presenter – IFIN-HH Early Career Meeting 2016, Bucharest-M ăgurele, Romania

December 2016

· Section: Applied Research

· Title: Metallic ion beam using ECRIS

Outreach

European Researchers’ Night 2021, Bucharest & M ăgurele, Romania

September 2021

· Organizer: Institute of Space Science (partner)

· Responsibility: Presentation of the in-house developed VR/smart app for a tour of the Solar System, Space Quizz App, creating (as well as advertising) a Copernicus Data Retrieval Tutorial, and engaging in interactions with the general public about the institute’s activities and various related topics or questions.

European Researchers’ Night 2019, Bucharest, Romania

September 2019

· Organizer: Institute of Space Science (partner)

· Responsibility: Presentation of the in-house developed VR app for a tour of the Solar System and engaging in interactions with the general public about the institute’s activities and various related topics or questions.

Doing School Differently 2019, Bucharest-M ăgurele, Romania

March 2019

· Organizer: Institute of Space Science

· Responsibility: Presentation of the in-house developed VR app for a tour of the Solar System, as well as other commercial applications intended for informal space education.

European Researchers’ Night 2018, Bucharest, Romania

September 2018

· Organizer: Institute of Space Science (partner)

· Responsibility: Presentation of the in-house developed VR app for a tour of the Solar System and engaging in interactions with the general public about the institute’s activities and various related topics or questions.

Doing School Differently 2018, Bucharest-M ăgurele, Romania

March 2018

· Organizer: Institute of Space Science

· Responsibility: Presentation of the in-house developed Virtual Reality (VR) for a tour of the Solar System, as well as other commercial applications intended for informal space education.

Romanian Research Symposium – Made in Romania 2017, Bucharest, Romania

October 2017

· Organizer: Ministry of Research and Innovation in partnership with the Chamber of Deputies

· Responsibility: Presentation of the in-house developed mobile application for a tour of the Solar System and engaging in interactions with the general public.

Workshops & Certifications

Front-End Web UI Frameworks and Tools: Bootstrap 4, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

October 2020

JWST Master Class Workshop, European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), Madrid, Spain

February 2020

Certificate for Linguistic Competence - English - B2, Romanian Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sport

July 2010

Certificate for Professional Competence - Computer Operating and Middle Level Programming Skills, Romanian Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sport

July 2010

Certificate for Oracle SQL fundamentals, Oracle Academy

June 2010

Publications, Proceedings and in preparation

LISA Astrophysics White Paper (in prep.)

2021

· Authors: LISA Consortium members (TBD)

· Abstract: TBD

Study of the first populations of black holes in the context of gravitational wave observations – Advances in Space Research

2021

· Authors: Caramete, L. I., Balasov, R. A.

· Abstract: Here we investigate the main characteristics, including the merging rate, of the first population of black holes in order to improve the current assumptions in the context of the present and future gravitational wave observations. We made several simulations with different populations of black holes that we evolve in time so we can compare them with the present population of black holes. We identified the most suitable first population of black holes and we obtained not only the merging rate of black holes but also its evolution with mass and in time. This information is very important for the next generation of gravitational waves observatories and specially for the LISA space mission.

Simulations and analysis of the first black hole populations – Rom. Rep. Phys. 72, 114

2020

· Authors: Balasov, R. A.; Caramete, L. I.

· Abstract: We simulate various black hole populations using the GIZMO code package for cosmological N-body/Smoothed-particle hydrodynamics (SPH) problems. The objective of this analysis is to use the results of the simulations in order to compare them with the present black hole mass distribution. In doing this, we can predict the initial population of black holes, the mass distribution and the black hole merger rate, which will be a direct contribution to the future gravitational waves observatories (such as the LISA Space Mission).

Characterization of Gravitational Waves Signals Using Neural Networks - eprint arXiv:2009.06109

2020

· Authors: Caramete, A.; Constantinescu, A. I.; Caramete, L. I.; Popescu, T.; Balasov, R. A.; Felea, D.; Rusu, M. V.; Stefanescu, P.; Tintareanu, O. M.

· Abstract: Gravitational wave astronomy has been already a well-established research domain for many years. Moreover, after the detection by LIGO/Virgo collaboration, in 2017, of the first gravitational wave signal emitted during the collision of a binary neutron star system, that was accompanied by the detection of other types of signals coming from the same event, multi-messenger astronomy has claimed its rights more assertively. In this context, it is of great importance in a gravitational wave experiment to have a rapid mechanism of alerting about potential gravitational waves events other observatories capable to detect other types of signals (e.g. in other wavelengths) that are produce by the same event. In this paper, we present the first progress in the development of a neural network algorithm trained to recognize and characterize gravitational wave patterns from signal plus noise data samples. We have implemented two versions of the algorithm, one that classifies the gravitational wave signals into 2 classes, and another one that classifies them into 4 classes, according to the mass ratio of the emitting source. We have obtained promising results, with 100% training and testing accuracy for the 2-class network and approximately 95% for the 4-class network. We conclude that the current version of the neural network algorithm demonstrates the ability of a well-configured and calibrated Bidirectional Long-Short Term Memory software to classify with very high accuracy and in an extremely short time gravitational wave signals, even when they are accompanied by noise. Moreover, the performance obtained with this algorithm qualifies it as a fast method of data analysis and can be used as a low-latency pipeline for gravitational wave observatories like the future LISA Mission.

Massive black hole masses in the context of gravitational wave observations - 42nd COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 14-22 July 2018, in Pasadena, California, USA, Abstract id. E1.15-6-18

2018

· Authors: Caramete, L. I.; Balasov, R. A.; Biermann, P.; Caramete, A.; Popescu, E. M.; Piso, M. I.; Zgura, I. S.; Chiritoi, G.

· Abstract: The recent discovery of gravitational waves from merging pairs of massive black holes and even neutron stars have marked the beginning of a new chapter in astronomy. The increasing sensitivity of the next generation of ground-based gravitational wave detectors and of the future space-borne ones will allow for the detection of high redshift merging black hole events, down to the realm of the first-generation black holes which is inaccessible to present and future electromagnetic observations. To better estimate the expected rates of black hole mergers and mass ratios, existing all-sky catalogues of black hole masses (e.g., BH-Cat) needs to be further developed and refined based on current observations. In the context of Romanian participation to LISA collaboration, we will present an updated version of the massive and supermassive black hole mass catalog, BH-Cat, together with its mass function and its implication for the LISA space mission. This catalog can be used to predict the mass and space distribution of the first-generation black holes, test the feedback between the black holes and the hosting galaxy evolution activities, study the growth mechanism of the black holes and predict the black holes mass merger ratios.