Riccardo Arcodia

"I decided to study the Universe to satisfy my appetite for learning the mysteries contained in it"

Life
I am Riccardo Arcodia, currently a PhD student at MPE. Before moving to the lovely Munich, I grew up in Novara – in north Italy - and studied Astrophysics in Milan. As many people, I decided to study the Universe to satisfy my appetite for learning the mysteries contained in it.

Science
I am particularly interested in studying how black holes grow and evolve. With eROSITA I can spot them when they make themselves known to our X-ray eyes, sometimes very insistently like the two massive black holes at the centre of the galaxies shown in the images below.

Hobbys
I have been playing basketball since I was a kid (some would say with poor results) and I also found a team here in Munich. Recently I even started a podcast about basketball with some old-timers from Italy (some would say with poor results), so this sport is definitely a passion of mine! I am also trying to learn to play guitar and, as frustrating as it can be, it‘s slowly improving.

One of my many superpowers is that I often drop things, but most of the times I manage to save them at the last second with an incredible catch. So apparently instead of evolving into not dropping things, I evolved into having super reflexes. Not the smartest, but it could be worse!

Conclusion
As a student I often think that the road up ahead in academia is too difficult and maybe I am not good enough or devoted enough, but eventually I realize that most of the people around me have probably thought the same at some point. When this life in academia comes with a nice work environment, it can be very rewarding! My advice to other students would be to use for the best the flexibility we have with our time, and to keep a healthy and balanced work flow.