Mark Ugalino

Physical Sciences Complex

Astronomy Dept, ATL

4296 Stadium Dr

College Park, MD, USA 20740

Welcome to my page! I am a cishet Filipino astrophysicist (pronouns: he/him) in the Astronomy PhD program at the University of Maryland College Park. I work with Professor Benedikt Diemer on large-scale magnetohydrodynamic simulations of galaxy formation. I previously worked with Professor Robert Fisher on large-scale simulations of type Ia supernovae at UMass Dartmouth, and Professor Ian Vega on theoretical astrophysics at the University of the Philippines Diliman.

I invite you to check out the following links to…

…check out my recent social media takeover for Pinoy Scientists: https://pinoyscientists.com/scientist/mark-ivan-ugalino/
…check out GRAD-MAP, a graduate student-run REU at Maryland Astronomy: www.umdgradmap.org
…learn more about where my career started: https://gravity-nip.github.io/
…show your support for the queer community in STEM: https://astro-outlist.github.io/, http://lgbtphysicists.org/, http://lgbtmath.org/, https://astrobites.org/2018/05/25/lgbtq-inclusivity-in-astronomy/

news

Oct 07, 2026	I will be giving a seminar at the Center for Theoretical Astrophysics at Los Alamos National Laboratory on the galactic dynamo comparison project I am leading.
Oct 02, 2026	I will be giving a seminar at the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at CU Boulder on the galactic dynamo comparison project I am leading.
Apr 29, 2026	I presented an oral presentation on my work in galactic magnetic fields at the RAMSES User Meeting. The event took place at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, from April 26 – May 1, 2026.
Nov 17, 2025	I passed my candidacy exam! I am now a PhD candidate.
Sep 08, 2025	I presented a research poster on my work in galactic magnetic fields at the upcoming “Magnetic Fields and Cosmic Rays across Diverse Scales: What’s Next?” conference. The event took place at the Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, from September 8–12, 2025.

selected publications

MNRAS Letters

Using 44Ti emission to differentiate between thermonuclear supernova progenitors

Daniel Kosakowski, Mark Ivan Ugalino, Robert Fisher, and 3 more authors

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Feb 2023

Abs ADS

The radioisotope 44Ti is produced through α-rich freezeout and explosive helium burning in type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). In this paper, we discuss how the detection of 44Ti, either through late-time light curves of SNe Ia, or directly via gamma-rays, can uniquely constrain the origin of SNe Ia. In particular, building upon recent advances in the hydrodynamical simulation of helium-ignited double white dwarf binaries, we demonstrate that the detection of 44Ti in a nearby SN Ia or in a young Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) can discriminate between the double-detonation and double-degenerate channels of sub-Chandrasekhar (sub-MCh) and near-Chandrasekhar (near-MCh) SNe Ia. In addition, we predict that the late-time light curves of calcium-rich transients are entirely dominated by 44Ti.