David Principe earned his B.S. in Astrophysics and Mathematics from Ohio University and his Ph.D. in Astrophysical Sciences and Technology from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).  He received a distinguished award from RIT for his dissertation entitled “Multiwavelength Observations of Young Stars and Their Circumstellar Disks” and was an invited speaker at his commencement ceremony.  He was awarded a postdoctoral research fellowship from Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (FONDECYT-Chile) and moved to Santiago, Chile to work at Universidad Diego Portales and pursue his research on star and planet formation.
 

David’s research is focused on investigating all stages of star formation (i.e., starting from the initial gravitational collapse of molecular clouds to the eventual formation of stars and planetary systems). David uses multiwavelength observations (radio, infrared, optical, and X-ray) to characterize various phenomena associated with the star formation process and has reduced data from a multitude of telescopes including Chandra, XMM-Newton, Spitzer, ALMA, SOFIA, Gemini, VLT, Victor Blanco 4-m Telescope, Magellan, and the SMA.   In particular, he is interested in star-disk magnetic activity, accretion, circumstellar disk features (e.g., warps, planet-induced spirals, fragmentation), disk gas to dust ratios, and the detection of (proto)planets.

Research Themes, Techniques and Instrumentation
Star and Planet Formation, Circumstellar Disks, Multiwavelength Astronomy, High Energy Astrophysics, Optical/IR Astronomy, Radio Astronomy, Chandra, ALMA, SOFIA, VLT-SPHERE, Gemini-GPI, Magellan