Video interview with Dr. Athina Meli, Editorial Board Member of Astronomy.

Dr. Athina Meli is a professor of physics and astronomy at North Carolina A&T State University, USA, and an ASCEND Research Scientist at Yale University, USA. She is also an affiliated Research Scientist at the University of Liège, Belgium. Dr. Meli serves as an appointed member and Chair (emerita) of NASA's Executive Committee for the Physics of the Cosmos (PhysPAG) Analysis Group, and she is the co-chair of the PhysPAG Cosmic-Ray and Neutrino Science Interest Group (CRN SIG).

Athina studies the processes behind the origin and acceleration of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays using a combination of theoretical and phenomenological approaches with simulations. Currently, her research focuses on relativistic 3D Particle-in-Cell simulations of astrophysical plasma jets of extragalactic sources, analyzing the role of magnetized jets in particle acceleration. She also studies Black Holes, the origin of cosmic rays, and the interconnected multi-messenger astrophysical framework that ties together cosmic rays, gamma rays, neutrinos, and gravitational waves from relativistic extragalactic sources.  Her research record includes authorship or co-authorship of over 120 peer-reviewed publications. Among other she is a member of the JEM-EUSO (Extreme Universe Space Observatory)/POEMMA (Probe of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics) /PBR (POEMMA-Balloon with Radio) experiments, the Vera C. Rubin Telescope Observatory (LSST) Transients and Variable Stars Science Collaboration, partner of the Perkins Telescope Observatory, Arizona and the Three College Observatory in North Carolina, and a working group member of the NewAthena, the Habitable Worlds Observatory and the Roman Telescope Science Collaboration. She is a co-founder of the Cosmoparticle Network and a member of the scientific committee. She serves as the editor and/or reviewer for several well-known international scientific peer-reviewed journals.

Past Experience

Dr. Athina Meli earned her Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Imperial College London, ranked second worldwide. She has conducted award-winning research at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn and has held teaching and research appointments at Imperial College London, the University of Athens, Ghent University, and other institutions. She has also been an active member and collaborator in several major international cosmic-ray and neutrino observatory experiments, including AUGER, IceCube, ANTARES, and KM3NeT.

Research Interests

1. Astroparticle physics

2. High-energy astrophysics

3. Space plasmas - Jet physics

4. Cosmic-ray acceleration/multimessenger astrophysics

5. Acceleration and radiation in Super Novae, Active Galactic Nuclei and Gamma-Ray-Bursts

6. Computational modelling and simulations

7. Black Hole physics