Dr Riccardo Gonzo

PhD

Postdoctoral Research Assistant

School of Physical and Chemical Sciences
Queen Mary University of London

r.gonzo@qmul.ac.uk

Member of Dr Ricardo Monteiro's Research Group

Funder:	Royal Society
Project:	RS URF Enhanced Expenses 2023

Centre for Theoretical Physics and Astronomy

Research

Gravitational Waves, Scattering Amplitudes, Black holes, Quantum Field Theory

Interests

I am a theoretical physicist interested in understanding the fundamental laws of nature, currently working at the intersection of high-energy physics and general relativity. My current work focuses on the analytical description of gravitational binary systems and the modelling of their waveforms by combining modern particle physics tools — such as scattering amplitudes — with traditional general relativity methods like the self-force expansion. My dream is to create a unified framework that connects weak-field Post-Minkowskian and Post-Newtonian theory with strong-field self-force resummation, leading to improved waveform models for current (LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA) and future (LISA, Einstein telescope) gravitational wave detectors.

News

June 2026

Marc Roth: Symmetric Parameterised Holants on Hypergraphs

9 June 2026

Together with colleagues from HPI in Potsdam, Berlin, Marc Roth has a paper accepted at ICALP 2026 which takes place in London in 2026. This is the Flagship Conference of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science recently promoted to A*, together with FOCS and STOC, one of the premiere venues for ... [more]

Impactful foundational work on network dynamics highlighted in Physical Review E

9 June 2026

A work from 2004 by Vito Latora, Professor of Applied Mathematics in the Centre for Complex Systems, and two co-authors has been selected for a collection of highly influential papers on statistical and nonlinear physics published in Physical Review E (PRE). The selection identifies 35 works from the journal's 33-year history that ... [more]

Impactful foundational work on network dynamics highlighted in Physical Review E

Prof Ana Sobrido talks to BOSS Energy about barriers to scaling sustainable energy technologies

8 June 2026

Prof Ana Sobrido was recently interviewed by Francesco Pinci, Marketing Manager at BOSS Energy, to explore the real challenges shaping the future of energy. One of the strongest insights from the discussion is that the biggest obstacle to scaling sustainable energy globally is not the absence of technology. According to ... [more]

Prof Ana Sobrido talks to BOSS Energy about barriers to scaling sustainable energy technologies

Glynn Winskel: Concurrent Strategies as Street Fibrations

7 June 2026

Glynn Winskel presented a paper with Hugo Paquet from Inria, Paris at the Mathematical Foundations of Program Semantics Conference (MFPS) in Ljubljana. The paper presents a very general model of concurrent games on event structures with symmetry, in which strategies satisfy the laws of composition up to a weak notion ... [more]

Freshwater methane emissions maximised by global warming

5 June 2026

It is not just cows that emit the powerful greenhouse gas methane – microbial emissions from the natural world will inevitably increase as our planet continues to warm. A new study led by Professor Mark Trimmer of Queen Mary University of London, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, explains how ... [more]

Behind the research: Freshwater methane emissions maximised by global warming

5 June 2026

This "behind-the-research" blog by Mark Trimmer, Professor of Biogeochemistry, takes readers beyond the published findings to reveal the motivations, challenges, and human stories that shaped the study. Say methane and most people think of cows, yet nearly half of all methane is produced by microbes in freshwaters. While we know ... [more]

Behind the research: Freshwater methane emissions maximised by global warming

Rethinking hearing aids: £607k award for innovative research at Queen Mary

5 June 2026

Dr Aidan Hogg, Lecturer in Computer Science at the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, has been awarded a prestigious £607,233 Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) New Investigator Award to lead a new project rethinking hearing assistive technology. The three-year project, Spatial Hearing Augmentation to Improve Hearing Assistive ... [more]

Rethinking hearing aids: £607k award for innovative research at Queen Mary

Sarah Brown to give plenary address at international preterm birth conference

2 June 2026

UK Preterm Birth Conference 2027 hosted at Queen Mary University of London from 18 and 19 January 2027. Sarah Brown, global health campaigner and Chair of the international children's charity Theirworld, will give a plenary address with Professor James Boardman, Scientific Director of the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory, at the UK Preterm Birth Conference 2027, ... [more]

Sarah Brown to give plenary address at international preterm birth conference

Epigenetic changes can be inherited without changing DNA in animals

1 June 2026

Beyond DNA: Scientists discover how traits can be passed on without genetic changes. In a new study by researchers at Queen Mary University of London, a sea anemone has revealed that epigenetic changes can be inherited across generations, offering rare experimental evidence that information beyond DNA sequence can persist in ... [more]

Epigenetic changes can be inherited without changing DNA in animals

Pasquale Malacaria and Yunxiao Zhang: Strategic Decision-Making in Uncertain Turn-Based Security Games

1 June 2026

Pasquale Malacaria and Yunxiao Zhang have a paper published in a top security journal, IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS), on Strategic Decision-Making in Uncertain Turn-Based Security Games. The paper studies the problem of cybersecurity decision making. It extends previous Leader-Follower game-theoretical models where the leader is the ... [more]

May 2026

New AI system could help scientists keep up with the explosion of research papers

28 May 2026

Queen Mary University researchers have developed a new AI-powered framework, MetaBeeAI, designed to help scientists review and analyse vast amounts of literature faster, more transparently, and with greater human oversight. Dr. Rachel Parkinson, who is the leading researcher on this project, states that MetaBeeAI could potentially transform how evidence is ... [more]

New AI system could help scientists keep up with the explosion of research papers

New European Study Reveals Methane Emissions from Biogas Plants Are Higher Than Previously Estimated – But Most Could Be Easily Reduced

27 May 2026

A major new study led by Queen Mary University of London has revealed that methane emissions from biogas plants across Europe are higher than some estimates suggest—yet, once identified, the majority of these emissions could be eliminated at no net cost. A biogas plant is a facility that turns ... [more]

New European Study Reveals Methane Emissions from Biogas Plants Are Higher Than Previously Estimated – But Most Could Be Easily Reduced

Tropical butterflies "hedge their bets" with mating tactics to adapt to extreme seasons

26 May 2026

Butterfly reproduction findings provide key insights into how climate crisis might affect tropical ecosystems. New research from Queen Mary University of London shows how extreme seasonal patterns are causing rainforest butterflies to adapt their reproductive strategies at a rapid pace, with implications for species resilience under accelerating climate disruption. The ... [more]

New visiting researcher at our center

22 May 2026

We welcome Cryssa Papadaki, a new visiting Researcher at our centre, supervised by Dr Eleni Matechou, on statistical ecology approaches for analyzing eDNA-derived biodiversity datasets from freshwater ecosystems of the Aegean islands. This work focuses on Joint Species Distribution Models (JSDMs), community ecology, biodiversity–environment relationships, and the application of ... [more]

Scientists generate electricity from ambient moisture using everyday ingredients

21 May 2026

An international research team led by scientists at Queen Mary University of London has developed an innovative method to power wearable electronics using ambient moisture and simple, non-toxic materials commonly found in the kitchen. In a study published in Nano Energy, researchers from Queen Mary, the University of Warwick, Imperial ... [more]

Scientists generate electricity from ambient moisture using everyday ingredients

Queen Mary strengthens UK-Brazil research partnerships

21 May 2026

An academic delegation from Queen Mary University of London visited Brazil to explore opportunities for collaboration with universities, research institutes and innovation organisations in areas including AI, health, sustainability and inclusive innovation. The visit was supported by the UK's International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF), bringing together colleagues from Queen Mary's ... [more]

Queen Mary strengthens UK-Brazil research partnerships

Innovation paves way to make 'clean' chemicals, plastics and food using solar energy

19 May 2026

Integrated solar reactor uses sunlight, water, CO2 and engineered bacteria to grow biomass in a single beaker. A new study led by Dr Lin Su of Queen Mary University of London, published today in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, describes a new integrated solar reactor in which engineered ... [more]

Innovation paves way to make 'clean' chemicals, plastics and food using solar energy

New insights into the control of cell-to-cell variation within bacterial communities

17 May 2026

By analysing gene expression at the single-cell level, researchers at the Centre for Molecular Cell Biology, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of West London and Tampere University, have uncovered how premature termination of transcription shapes differences between individual members of bacterial communities. Because gene expression is stochastic and ... [more]

Przemek Wałęga paper on graph neural networks awarded "spotlight paper" distinction

14 May 2026

Przemek Wałęga is part of a team that has had a paper accepted at the Forty-Third International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) in Seoul, South KoreaJuly 6th - 11th, 2026. It is one of the three main machine learning conferences. Their paper shows that graph neural networks have "winning tickets": ... [more]

12 May: International Women in Mathematics Day

11 May 2026

International Women in Mathematics Day is celebrated on 12 May, marking the birthday of Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman to receive the Fields Medal in 2014. Born in Iran, Mirzakhani made groundbreaking contributions to mathematics before her life was cut short at a young age. Her legacy continues to inspire women and ... [more]