Rate My Professor Liliana Rivera Sandoval

Liliana Rivera Sandoval is an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), contributing to Space Science through her research and education leadership. She earned a BSc in Physics from the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla in December 2011 with Cum Laude distinction, an MSc in Astrophysics from the Institute of Astronomy at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in September 2013, graduating with honors and receiving the Alfonso Caso Medal for outstanding performance, and a PhD in Astronomy from the Anton Pannekoek Institute of the University of Amsterdam in December 2017, with a thesis titled Multi-wavelength studies of compact binaries supervised by Prof. Rudy Wijnands and Dr. Maureen van den Berg. Her career includes a postdoctoral position at Texas Tech University from October 2017 to November 2020 in Prof. Thomas Maccarone's group, followed by the Avadh Bhatia Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Alberta from November 2020 to August 2021, where she was the first Latina recipient. She joined UTRGV as assistant professor in September 2021 and became a Cottrell Research Scholar in February 2025, marking UTRGV's first recipient of this award.

Rivera Sandoval's research specializes in multi-wavelength observations of compact binaries, particularly white dwarf binaries, globular clusters, transients, time-domain astronomy, and stellar accretion disks, with a focus on stellar interactions in dense environments like globular clusters and exotic binary stars harboring stellar remnants. Key publications include X-ray Swift observations of SN 2018cow (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, 2018), New cataclysmic variables and other exotic binaries in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2018), MOCCA-SURVEY database I: properties of cataclysmic variables in globular clusters (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2019), TACOS: TESS AM CVn Outbursts Survey (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2021), and The outburst of a 60 min AM CVn (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2021). She has received numerous awards, including the 2025 Cottrell Scholar Award ($120,000 from Research Corporation for Science Advancement), TAMEST Protégée 2026, UTRGV Faculty Research Fellow 2025, Women and Girls in Astronomy Program Fellow (2023 and 2024), Gruber Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (2021, IAU), Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Seal of Excellence (2020), and Texas Tech University Matador Award (2020). As Education Lead for UTRGV's STSSI and Faculty Senate member, she advances outreach and mentoring in astronomy.