Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz

Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz is a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He was a NASA Chandra and Bahcall Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. In 2019, he received the HEAD Mid-Career Prize from the American Astronomical Society. In 2021, he was awarded the Dwight Nicholson Medal for Outreach by the American Physical Society.

Ramirez-Ruiz founded the Lamat Institute at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2009. In February 2022, Ramirez-Ruiz received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring for creating the Lamat Institute.

Ramirez-Ruiz was named president of the board of Astronomical Society of the Pacific in June 2025.

Selected publications

Kasen, D., Metzger, B., Barnes, J., Quataert, E., and Ramirez-Ruiz, E., "Origin of the heavy elements in binary neutron-star mergers from a gravitational- wave event." Nature, 551(7678):80–84, Oct 2017. Guillochon, J. and Ramirez-Ruiz, E., “Hydrodynamical Simulations to Determine the Feeding Rate of Black Holes by the Tidal Disruption of Stars: The Importance of the Impact Parameter and Stellar Structure” The Astrophysical Journal, 767(1):25, Mar 2013. Gehrels, N., Ramirez-Ruiz, E., and Fox, D., "Gamma ray bursts in the iswift/i era. Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 47(1): 567–617, Sep 2009. doi: 10.1146/annurev.astro.46.060407.145147 Roberts, L. F., Kasen, D., Lee, W. H., and Ramirez-Ruiz, E., "Electromagnetic Transients Powered by Nuclear Decay in the Tidal Tails of Coalescing Compact Binaries". The Astrophysical Journal, 736(1):L21, Jul 2011.