Steffani Grondin

Contact me: sgrondin[at]ucsd.edu

Hi there! I'm a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California San Diego. I'm also an IAU NA-ROAD Women & Girls in Astronomy Program Fellow, where I run a program to expand access to astronomy for girls and educators in rural British Columbia, Canada. In 2025, I received my PhD in Astronomy & Astrophysics from the University of Toronto (Advisors: Dr. Maria Drout & Dr. Jeremy Webb) where I held an NSERC Graduate Scholarship. Previously, I received my Combined Honours Bachelor of Science in Physics & Astronomy at the University of British Columbia (Advisor: Dr. Harvey Richer).

My research combines observations, simulations and machine learning to study binary and star cluster evolution. Specifically, I use binaries in star clusters to unravel the common envelope phase of binary evolution—a critical but poorly constrained process that influences the outcomes of Type Ia supernovae, gravitational wave mergers and UV-bright galaxies. I'm currently using a variety of ground-based (e.g. Gemini, Lick) and space-based (e.g. Swift, Hubble) telescopes to discover and characterize new post-common envelope white dwarf+main-sequence binaries to place better constraints on this evolutionary phase. I'm also a developer of Corespray, which is a Python-based software that quickly samples dynamical interactions between stars and binaries, providing insights into the escaped stellar populations of globular clusters.

In my free time, you can find me racing in triathlons, exploring the outdoors, cooking a pot of beans or adding to my ever-expanding vinyl record collection.

Check out my publications on the NASA ADS here.

Here is my CV.