Dr. Campanelli joined RIT in 2007 as faculty member of the School of Mathematical Sciences and founding Director of the Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation [1], [2]. She holds a 'Laurea' degree in Mathematics from the University of Perugia (1991) and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Bern (1996). In 1998, Campanelli was awarded of a Marie-Curie Fellowship to work at the Max-Planck-Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), where she remained until 2001. There, she lead and developed the Lazarus project which provided the first insights into the physics of merging black holes. In 2002, she joined the Physics and Astronomy faculty at the University of Texas at Brownsville, where she also served as the associate Director of the Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy (CGWA) and lead several computing projects [3].

In 2005, Campanelli and colleagues Carlos Lousto and Yosef Zlochower developed a new powerful numerical technique, known as moving puncture, solving a decade long-standing problem on simulating the merger of black holes in strong field general relativity. In 2009, she received a Fellowship of the American Physical Society (APS) "for groundbreaking work on numerical simulations of binary black hole space times and for explorations of physical effects such as “super kicks” and spin-driven orbital dynamics".  Campanelli has published numerous articles and lectures frequently on her research worldwide (see related stories at: APS focus, New Scientist, Astronomy, etc). She is a member of the Ligo Scientific Collaboration (LSC) and principal investigator in multiple NSF and NASA funded research projects [ PHY-0653303, PHY-0722315, PHY-0714388, PHY-0722703, OCI-0832606, PHY-0903782, PHY-0969855, AST-1028087]

In addition to her educational and research activities, Campanelli is active in professional service. She currently is the Vice-Chair the Topical Group on Gravitation (GGR) and an executive member of the Division of Computational Physics (DCOMP) of the American Physical Society. She regularly serves on many scientific boards, including review panels for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and acts as referee of scientific journals.