Angela Villela Olinto

Angela V. Olinto is Provost and Professor of Astronomy and of Physics at Columbia University. She was Dean of the Division of the Physical Sciences and the Albert A. Michelson Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, and the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago. Olinto is a leader in astroparticle physics known for her work on the origin of high-energy cosmic rays and neutrinos, and her theory of strange stars, natural inflation, cosmic magnetic fields, and dark matter. She is the Principal Investigator of the POEMMA (Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics) space and balloon missions and the EUSO (Extreme Universe Space Observatory) on a super pressure balloon (SPB) mission, and was a member of the Pierre Auger Observatory, all designed to discover the origin of the highest energy cosmic particles. Olinto received a B.S. in Physics from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1981, and Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1987. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. She is a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.