The origin of the r-process elements has been a long-standing astrophysical mystery, but recent evidence has slowly coalesced around neutron star mergers as the likely dominant source, as well as possible contributions by enrichment from Collapsars or exotic Supernovae explosions.

One of the most spectacular astronomical discoveries that I had the privilige to witness in my lifetime was the 2017 direct detection of r-process elements made in a neutron star mergern, coincident with a gravitational wave signal detected by LIGO/VIRGO. Such “multi-messenger” studies of the origin of the elements is a fascinating and rapidly growing area.

I am a core member of the R-process Alliance (RPA), whose aim is to characterize the population of rapid neutron-capture (r-process) stars in the Galactic halo and UFDs as well as to understand its origins and still highly debated site(s) of production. With the RPA, I have lead one of the four data release papers published so far (Paper 1 ), and contributed to more than 10 focused papers over the past three years (e.g., Paper2, Paper3, Paper4). Many more papers in preparation by the RPA are expected to come out soon with exciting r-process stars discoveries!