From Ecuador to the hidden structures of the Universe.
A scientific path shaped by curiosity, movement between cultures, and a conviction that more students should be able to see themselves in science.
Astrophysicist, educator, communicator.
Silvana Delgado Andrade is an Ecuadorian astrophysicist whose work explores massive galaxies, stellar dynamics, dark matter, and supermassive black holes.
She earned a B.S. in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, followed by an M.S. and Ph.D. in Astronomy from Texas A&M University. As a member of the MASSIVE Survey collaboration, she uses observations and computational models to recover the mass distribution, internal structure, and evolutionary histories of some of the largest galaxies in the local Universe.
Today she teaches physics at Wharton County Junior College while continuing to connect astronomy with students and public audiences in the United States and Ecuador.
One unexpected class changed everything.
A route through different countries, educational systems, and scientific communities.
Curiosity formed across four regions
Born in Manabí and raised in Guayaquil, Silvana grew up exploring Ecuador’s coast, highlands, Amazon, and Galápagos—an early education in scale, biodiversity, and wonder.
Physics and astronomy at UMass Amherst
An introductory astronomy course turned a love of mathematics and physics into a vocation. Undergraduate research with ALMA and Hubble data made galaxy formation tangible.
Graduate astronomy at Texas A&M
With advisor Jonelle Walsh, she developed expertise in stellar kinematics and dynamical modeling, earning her M.S. in 2022 and Ph.D. in 2025.
Teaching, research, and public astronomy
As a physics lecturer and communicator, she translates advanced ideas into structured learning and builds bridges for Latin American students entering STEM.
Identity is part of the scientific story.
Moving between Ecuador and the United States meant learning to navigate new school systems, languages, and expectations. That experience now informs Silvana’s mentoring: talent is everywhere, while access, information, and belonging are not.
“The Universe is infinite—and our dreams should be, too.”
Mountains, cultures, connection.
Silvana is an avid rock climber who competed with the Texas A&M Climbing Team. She travels throughout Ecuador, seeks out new landscapes, shares Ecuadorian food and culture with friends abroad, and treats exploration as a practice that connects the physical world to the cosmic one.