UCSB Astrophysics
Portrait of Andy Howell

§ 01People · Faculty

Andy Howell

Adjunct Professor; Senior Staff Scientist, Las Cumbres Observatory

Andy Howell is a senior staff scientist at Las Cumbres Observatory, where he runs a research group, and an adjunct professor at UCSB, where he teaches and advises students and postdocs. He studies supernovae, kilonovae and tidal disruption events.

He is PI of the Global Supernova Project, a collaboration of more than 200 scientists, and co-PI of the Global Kilonova Project, which searches for the counterparts of gravitational wave events. In 2017 his group at Las Cumbres was one of six teams to find the first kilonova, from a neutron star merger in NGC 4993. He has helped discover new types of supernovae and has used supernovae for cosmology, including in the Supernova Legacy Survey.

He received his PhD from the University of Texas and was a postdoc at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Toronto.

§ 02Fig. 1

Where in the universe

Range 3.2 Mly to 10 Gly

Andy Howell, row of Fig. 1. The bar spans the light travel distances of the objects studied, 3.2 Mly to 10 Gly, on a logarithmic axis from the Solar System to the cosmic microwave background. Its color is the research theme. Dotted lines mark landmarks. Fig. 1 with every faculty member

§ 03Publications

Recent papers

The newest papers with Andy Howell as an author, from NASA ADS. Group members are in gold.

  1. 01Oct 2026ApJL
    JWST Observations of SN 2024abup: First Detection of CO in a Broad-lined Type Ic Supernova and Constraints on r-process NucleosynthesisM. Shrestha, L. A. Kwok, D. J. Sand, S. Barmentloo, C. Christy, A. Jerkstrand, K. A. Bostroem, J. E. Andrews et al. (45 authors); UCSB: D. A. Howell, C. McCully, K. WynnStars & transients
    arXiv:2606.28561
  2. 02Oct 2026ApJ
    JWST Nebular Spectroscopy of SN 2023qov: Circumstellar Dust Emission in a Normal Type Ia SupernovaC. W. Macrie, C. Larison, H. Sears, L. A. Kwok, S. W. Jha, M. Dai, J. Johansson, S. Blondin et al. (46 authors); UCSB: D. A. HowellStars & transients
    arXiv:2604.09777
  3. 03Sep 2026arXiv
    Nearby Supernova Science in the Era of High Cadence, Deep Time Domain SurveysD. J. Sand, B. Subrayan, C. L. Ransome, G. Hosseinzadeh, K. A. Bostroem, J. E. Andrews, J. Pearson, Y. Dong et al. (44 authors); UCSB: D. A. Howell, C. McCullyStars & transients
    arXiv:2609.38304
  4. 04Sep 2026arXiv
    The 91T/99aa-like Type Ia Supernova 2019vrq, Part I: Photometry, Spectroscopy, and Spectropolarimetry of a Nearly Standard CandleY. Yang, P. Hoeflich, J. C. Wheeler, D. Baade, L. Wang, A. Cikota, D. A. Howell, C. McCully et al. (19 authors)Stars & transients
    arXiv:2609.31510
  5. 05Sep 2026arXiv
    Tomography analysis of the intermediate-luminosity Type Iax SN 2024pxlB. Barna, M. Singh, L. A. Kwok, S. W. Jha, R. Dastidar, C. Larison, A. V. Filippenko, J. P. Anderson et al. (93 authors); UCSB: D. A. Howell, C. McCullyStars & transients
    arXiv:2609.28712
  6. 06Sep 2026arXiv
    Early NIR echo and the time variable mass loss history of Type IIn SN 2024kgiN. Dukiya, K. Misra, A. Pastorello, A. Reguitti, A. Gangopadhyay, A. P. Ravi, B. Hsu, N. Franz et al. (33 authors); UCSB: D. A. Howell, C. McCully, K. WynnStars & transients
    arXiv:2609.25233
  7. 07Sep 2026arXiv
    A Proliferated Space Architecture for Time-Domain AstrophysicsD. Kocevski, E. Burns, T. Barclay, N. E. White, M. Galeazzi, B. O'Connor, A. Lien, C. Fryer et al. (61 authors); UCSB: D. A. HowellStars & transients
    arXiv:2609.12153
  8. 08Sep 2026arXiv
    SN 2025fhm: A central-engine powered Ic-BL supernova associated with X-ray transient EP250304aC.-Y. Song, N. Jiang, X. Wang, Y.-H. I. Yin, L. Wang, W. Li, S. Yan, D.-S. Moon et al. (35 authors); UCSB: K. Wynn, D. A. Howell, C. McCullyStars & transients
    arXiv:2609.08356
  9. 09Sep 2026ApJ
    SN 2019cqc: A Hydrogen-rich Superluminous Supernova Showing Electron-scattering SignaturesD. Hebbar, R. Roy, M. Nicholl, J. Sollerman, J. P. Anderson, M. Gromadzki, D. A. Howell, T. Kangas et al. (18 authors); UCSB: C. McCullyStars & transients
    arXiv:2608.30309
  10. 10Sep 2026ApJ
    AT 2022csn: A Photometrically Peculiar Optical/UV Tidal Disruption Event in a Type II AGNY. Dgany, I. Arcavi, G. Zeltyn, S. Gomez, D. Hiramatsu, B. Trakhtenbrot, M. Newsome, D. Baron et al. (21 authors); UCSB: D. A. HowellStars & transients
    arXiv:2608.02725

All papers by Andy Howell

§ 04Sky

Gravitational wave events

Events from Andy Howell's papers. Most have no point position on the sky, only a region that holds the source with 90% probability.

Everyone in the group