Andrej Prša

Andrej Prša is a Professor of Astrophysics and Planetary Science at Villanova University. He earned his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2005. For his dissertation, Andrej developed the widely used binary modeling code PHOEBE (PHysics Of Eclipsing BinariEs). While his core expertise remains binary star physics, his work has expanded to include multiple stellar systems, exoplanets, asteroseismology, and astrostatistics. Much of his research involves modeling large astronomical datasets and applying complex, non-linear regression models. These models utilize backpropagating neural networks, stochastic embedding algorithms, and Markov Chain Monte Carlo samplers. He has published a textbook on eclipsing binary stars and is the author of over 200 papers, 40 of which he is the lead author. Andrej currently leads a research group comprising four postdoctoral researchers, three graduate students, and five undergraduate students. The group is funded by external grants, primarily from NSF and NASA, and has an uninterrupted grant record since 2007. In 2018, he received the prestigious Veritas Award for outstanding research. He is an active collaborator on major international surveys, including Kepler/K2, TESS, LSST, SDSS/APOGEE, and Gaia.

Research projects: His primary research interest is computational astrophysics, which involves developing a theoretical framework for modeling binary and multiple star systems. He also addresses the problem of radiative transfer in contact binary systems and focuses on parameter estimation using advanced methods such as machine learning and artificial neural networks. Within this field, he works on modeling transiting exoplanets and circumbinary objects using data from the Kepler/K2 and TESS missions. He is also developing a stellar variability measurement for the current Gaia mission and the upcoming Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.