Home Page 

Paz Beniamini, Associate Professor

Contact Info

The Open University of Israel Department of Natural Sciences 1 University Road P.O.B. 808 Ra’anana 4353701, Israel
Office:972-9-7782070 Email:pazb@openu.ac.il

Areas of Interest
  • Gamma Ray bursts
  • Fast radio bursts
  • Compact binary systems
  • R-process nucleosynthesis
  • Magnetars

Prof. Paz Beniamini is an astrophysicist. His research domain is theoretical high energy astrophysics, which deals with some of the most extreme environments in nature, in which particles can be accelerated to within a fraction of the speed of light and the magnetic fields may be a hundred trillion times greater than those on Earth. Paz’s research focuses on Gamma ray bursts, fast radio bursts, magnetars, binary neutron stars, tidal disruption events and formation channels of heavy elements in the Universe. Paz holds a BSc, MSc and PhD in Physics from the Hebrew University. After completing his PhD work in 2016 he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, at the George Washington University and at the California institute of technology (Caltech). Paz joined the Open University of Israel as a senior lecturer in 2021.

Open all
2011-2016
Ph.D. in Astrophysics. Dissertation title: Radiation Processes in Gamma Ray Bursts; the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2009-2011
M.Sc in Physics. Research project: high energy emission from Gamma ray bursts; the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2006-2009
B.Sc in Physics and Mathematics; the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2024 -
Associate professor at the Open University of Israel
2023 -
Adjunct assistant professor at the George Washington University
2021 - 2024
Senior lecturer at the Open University of Israel
2019 - 2021
Moore postdoctoral fellow at Caltech
2017- 2019
Postdoctoral research fellow at the George Washington University
2016 - 2017
Chateaubriand fellow at the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris

2025-2028 - co-PI of selected NSF-BSF grant: From meters to parsecs, from milliseconds to years: A journey through space and time with binary mergers

2024 - co-PI of selected NASA ATP proposal: Decoding Fast Radio Bursts and their potential role as cosmological probes

2023-2027 -  PI of selected Personal ISF grant: Illuminating GRB jet structures and their implications

2023 - PI of selected Equipment grant from ISF – super computational resources for performing hydrodynamical and magnetohydrodynamical simulations of relativistic astrophysical fluids

2022 – 2025 - co-PI of selected NSF-BSF grant: Crossing the Chasm: From compact object mergers to cosmic fireworks

2019-2021 - Moore postdoctoral prize fellowship from Caltech, UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara

2016 - Chateaubriand fellowship from the French government

2015 - Rosenblum award for excellent research in Astrophysics

2015 - Teaching excellence award from the Hebrew University

Open all

“Detection of X-ray emission from a bright long-period radio transient” Wang Z., … Beniamini P., … 2025, Nature, 642, 583W. 
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09077-w

 “The Role of Magnetic and Rotation Axis Alignment in Driving Fast Radio Burst Phenomenology” Beniamini P., Kumar P., 2025, ApJ, 982, 45B.
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/adb8e6

“Extragalactic Magnetar Giant Flares: Population Implications, Rates, and Prospects for Gamma-Rays, Gravitational Waves, and Neutrinos” Beniamini P., Wadiasingh Z., Trigg A., … 2025, ApJ, 980, 211B.
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ada947

“Magnetospheric origin of a fast radio burst constrained using scintillation” Nimmo K., Pleunis Z., Beniamini P., … 2025, Nature, 637, 48N.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08297-w

Ultrafast Compact Binary Mergers” Beniamini P., Piran T., 2024, ApJ, 966, 17B.
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad32cd

 “A structured jet explains the extreme GRB 221009A” O’Connor B., … Beniamini P., … 2023, Science Advances, 9I14050.
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi1405

“Magnetic field reversal in the turbulent environment around a repeating fast radio burst” Anna-Thomas R., … Beniamini P., …, 2023, Science, 380, 599A.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abo6526

 “Evidence for an abundant old population of Galactic ultra-long period magnetars and implications for fast radio bursts” Beniamini P., Wadiasingh Z., Hare J., Rajwade K. M., 2023, MNRAS, 520, 1872B.
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stad208

“Robust features of off-axis gamma-ray burst afterglow light curves” Beniamini P., Ramandeep G., Granot J.; 2022, MNRAS, 515, 555B.
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stac1821

“Faraday depolarization and induced circular polarization by multipath propagation with application to FRBs” Beniamini P., Kumar P., Narayan R.; 2022, MNRAS, 510, 4654B.
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stab3730

“Exploring the epoch of hydrogen reionization using FRBs” Beniamini P.; Kumar P.; Ma X.; Quataert E.; 2021, MNRAS, 502, 5134B.
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stab309

“Periodicity in recurrent fast radio bursts and the origin of ultralong period magnetars” Beniamini P.; Wadiasingh Z.; Metzger B. D.; 2020, MNRAS, 496, 3390B.
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staa1783

“Afterglow Lightcurves from Misaligned Structured Jets” Beniamini P.; Granot J.; Gill R.; 2020, MNRAS, 493, 3521B.
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staa538

“The Gravitational waves merger time distribution of binary neutron star systems”, Beniamini P.; Piran T.; 2019, MNRAS, 487, 4847B.
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz1589

“Formation rates and evolution histories of magnetars”, Beniamini P.; Hotokezaka K.; Van der Horst A.; Kouveliotou C.; 2019, MNRAS, 487, 1426B.
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz1391

“Neutron star mergers as sites of r-process nucleosynthesis and short gamma-ray bursts”, Hotokezaka K.; Beniamini P.; Piran T.; 2018, International Journal of Modern Physics D, 1842005.
DOI: 10.1142/S0218271818420051

“Natal Kicks and Time Delays in Merging Neutron Star Binaries: Implications for r-process Nucleosynthesis in Ultra-faint Dwarfs and in the Milky Way”, Beniamini P.; Hotokezaka K.; Piran T., 2016, ApJ, 829L, 13B.
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8205/829/1/L13

“Formation of Double Neutron Star systems as implied by observations”, Beniamini P.; Piran T., 2016, MNRAS, 454, 4089B. 
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stv2903

“Energies of GRB blast waves and prompt efficiencies as implied by self-consistent modeling of X-ray and LAT afterglows”, Beniamini P.; Nava L.; Barniol Duran R.; Piran T., 2015, MNRAS, 454, 1073B.
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stv2033