Ermal Rrapaj

Ermal Rrapaj

Fellow
Ermal Rrapaj

About

Ermal graduated from Old Dominion University in 2010 with a B.S. in physics and applied mathematics. After receiving a MS in Science in Physics in 2011 and a MS in Science in applied mathematics in 2012, Ermal received his PhD in 2016 from the University of Washington in Seattle where he worked with Sanjay Reddy in theoretical and computational nuclear astrophysics. He then proceeded to work with Alexandros Gezerlis in nuclear many body physics and heavy nuclei.

In 2018 Ermal joined N3AS, spending two years at the University of Minnesota with Yong Qian, before moving to Berkeley in 2020, first working in N3AS and later becoming a RIKEN Berkeley Center Fellow.

He is currently a staff member of the Advanced Technologies Group, NERSC, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he works at the intersection of scientific computing algorithms and HPC system architecture.

Ermal’s research centers on the intersection of quantum many body physics and astrophysics. His general focus is on how particle interactions affect the properties of extreme environments such as supernovae and neutron stars and how they relate to earth experiments. The main research topics include properties of nuclei that could be tested in future experiments, neutrino nucleon matter interactions, transport properties of neutron stars, supernovae equation of state, and astrophysical implicationsfrom BSM particles. In recent years Ermal has been exploring how new technologies such as machine learning (neural networks) and quantum computing can aid in these research venues.

Research Publications
Research Themes