I'm Dr. Bethany Ludwig, a postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven, where I study the lives and interactions of massive stars in binary systems. My research focuses on how stellar companions exchange mass, lose their envelopes, and evolve into exotic objects like stripped stars and compact remnants. I use a combination of observational data and modeling to understand how binaries shape the fates of massive stars and the explosions they leave behind.

I earned my PhD in Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Maria Drout and Ylva Gotberg where I helped identify the first population of intermediate mass stripped stars. Before that I worked with Karin Sandstrom at the University of California, San Diego where I earned my Bachelors in Physics.

I am originally from sunny southern California where I volunteered with The Planetary Society, The Sierra Club, and Sidewalk for Astronomers.