Last semester, the Physics and Astronomy Department welcomed Dr. Mark Giovinazzi, a new postdoc in professor Daniella Bardalez Gagliuffi’s Binary Worlds Lab. Mark received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2024, working with exoplanets and low-mass stars. Growing up in Southern New Jersey and studying in Philadelphia, his journey involves diverse research experiences and the continuous mission to elevate underrepresented students in the field.
Unraveling the Secrets of Brown Dwarfs
As a member of the Binary Worlds Lab, one of Mark’s current research areas focuses on brown dwarfs—substellar objects with masses between planets (< 13 Jupiter mass) and the least massive stars. These celestial bodies fail to sustain hydrogen fusion, a defining characteristic of main-sequence stars. Instead, they cool and fade over time, evolving much like planets.
“This is not always the case, but they represent largely this unifying region of mass space,” Mark explains. “It’s sort of like a game of hide and seek … Brown dwarfs are hard to find because there aren’t as many but they’re very big. So when you find them, you can learn a lot about them.”
The brown dwarf formation process is still debated. Some brown dwarfs may form through the gravitational collapse of gas and dust in a molecular cloud, similar to low-mass stars, while others might originate via disk fragmentation in circumstellar disks, akin to planetary formation. Only recently have researchers started to investigate these processes by studying the atmospheres of brown dwarfs with cutting-edge spectroscopy.
Mark’s current goal is to try to constrain theories of brown dwarf formation and evolution by direct evidence of physical properties like their orbits, temperature, mass, and age. “If we can determine how brown dwarfs form, we can refine our understanding of planetary evolution and even gain insights into how our own solar system came to be,” he says.
A Universe of Exoplanets
Beyond brown dwarfs, Mark also studies exoplanets—planetary bodies orbiting other stars—which were the focus of his graduate research.
Although exoplanet research has taken off over the past several decades, there is still much to learn about the worlds littered across our galaxy. “We can see something like 28,000 stars with just our naked eye, many of which we expect, or know of to have, planets orbiting them. But we also have 100 billion stars in our galaxy, where we expect each one of those to have one or more exoplanets orbiting them, and we only know about five to 6000 exoplanets at this time,” Mark says.
His Ph.D. thesis studied the orbits and masses of objects in binary systems, particularly star–planet systems. These systems are powerful laboratories to study the planetary formation process as we can oftentimes assume coevolution; i.e., we expect objects in the system to have the same age and the same composition. When comparing abundances from a star to a planet, we can make direct inferences about where the planet might have formed in its solar system. During his work, Mark developed a method to estimate stellar masses by simply looking at their brightness. This photometric relationship was capable of measuring the masses of more than 30 million stars in our galaxy.
From a Small-Town in New Jersey to the World of Astronomy
Mark grew up in a small community, born in a small town in southern New Jersey. His interest in math and science developed early on, which he pursued into high school. “My first physics class in high school solidified my interest in the field. I really liked doing energy conservation problems, where everything balanced out perfectly.”
This experience led him to Drexel University in Philadelphia, where he majored in physics. Transitioning from a rural town to a bustling city was challenging. “I actually didn’t want to go to a city for college,” Mark admits. “I remember taking a college tour and being shocked that we had to wait at a red light to get to class. And I was like, this is crazy. Like, I’m gonna be late for class because I’m waiting for the red light.”
Drexel’s unique five-year undergraduate program proved to be a defining experience for him. The university’s cooperative education (co-op) program requires students to complete three six-month research internships, offering real-world experiences that shaped Mark’s scientific trajectory.
The diverse experience at Drexel “rounded me out as an astronomer to think of how we study space on all scales,” Mark says. His first research experience involved simulating star clusters. Then, he studied cosmic microwave background (CMB) using a balloon-borne experiment that launched into the upper atmosphere as a part of the BLAST project, and his second co-op program looked for extrasolar neutrinos.
After working with neutrinos, he took his last six-month opportunity to try an engineering position at Lockheed Martin, where he worked on electronic warfare technologies to detect and recognize different signals that the U.S. government might interpret as foreign signals. This experience, however, did not resonate with his passion — “I thought there was a value misalignment.”
Mark’s diverse research opportunities not only allowed him to explore a wide range of fields, but also helped him clarify his scientific priorities. “It made me realize what I didn’t want to do,” Mark says. “I think my experience affirmed that I did want to continue to pursue astronomy.” For his senior thesis, Mark returned to his first summer advisor to study exoplanets in stellar clusters.
After earning his undergraduate degree, Mark continued his studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where he pursued a PhD in astrophysics to deepen his expertise in stellar and planetary systems.
Moreover, Philadelphia has become a special place in his heart – it’s where he met his wife and got married about a year ago. “My wife and I have matching tattoos,” he beams. “It’s a little stamp and is Philly’s love sign, the love statue in Philadelphia. And the strawberry as the ‘O’ because our first wedding song was called Strawberries.”
Life in Amherst and Beyond
Mark moved to Amherst last summer. After spending more than a decade in Philadelphia, moving to Amherst was a big shift. “It’s a lot quieter,” Mark says. “I didn’t need a car in Philly, but I do here. I love all the nature, and the winter has also been great. I was able to get a bigger place with grass and more space from neighbors.”
His day starts with making breakfast and coffee. He usually brings his lunch, which he prepares in the morning, and calls the Science Center Cafe “a great resource.”
Outside of research, Mark enjoys exercising, including local hikes and tennis. He was excited about the gym on campus, at least when he moved here. “I went to the gym for a good two weeks and became lazy so I stopped going.” Mark’s opponent in tennis is usually his wife, and they drive up together over the weekend or before their days start. They are hoping to find someone who will play doubles with them.
Cooking a new recipe every week is undoubtedly one of their favorite activities. “The last couple weeks, we made Bao buns, which were really fun. We found a good recipe, so we made everything from the dough to the sauce. One had pork on the inside with sesame oil, soy sauce, honey and brown sugar, and the other we call ‘sticky chicky.’”
Mark also has a passion for mentoring students and making astronomy more accessible. He founded the GRAD (Graduate Readiness and Application Development) program, which pairs undergraduates with mentors to help them apply to graduate school. “There is gatekeeping that tends to happen at all the different junctures between undergrad to grad, and grad to postdoc,” he says. “I think physics and astronomy has a track record of keeping students out. So I’ve done a lot of work to elevate students who usually don’t have as many resources as others.”
His Future and The Future of Science
“Long-term research wise, I would love to stay in astronomy. If I could stay at Amherst forever, I would, because it’s a beautiful campus and a beautiful area. If I can’t stay here forever, I’d love to end up at a national lab like a NASA center or a Space Telescope.” Mark says these labs dedicated to astronomical research would be great places to continue supporting his goals and allow him to contribute to the field.
His other goal is to build skills for mentoring more junior students and working with students who may not have the resources to conduct research. “That’s something really important to me, and from my transition here at Amherst to wherever the next place is, I want to continue representing underrepresented students in physics and astronomy to keep the field as equitable as possible.”
“I’d also like to start a family in the next handful of years too,” he added at the end. “And maybe get a dog.”
As a final thought, he responded to what it means to do science today: “One responsibility is to be really inclusive about the ideas and the backgrounds of people that you are choosing to do work with.” Scientists need to promote the right people and identify leaders from various backgrounds who can inspire the next wave of scientists. There have been many recent changes in the field, which he describes as “forcing people to alter their missions and motives to continue work in the field. This needs to change”
“I think that it’s important for every scientist to remember the reasons why they have chosen to enter the field and stay true to those. Science has always been about getting answers for the betterment of the community, and not really for any other reason. I think it’s important to keep that in mind.”
With that, Mark sips his coffee, ready to dive back into his research. The universe is vast, and there are still so many questions left to answer.
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