Supernovae are among the most energetic explosions in the Universe, they are extremely important for studying high energy physics, stellar evolution and mass-loss processes, compact objects, cosmology, nucleosynthesis, and galaxy evolution. Optical transient surveys such as ZTF, ATLAS, ASAS-SN now find thousands of supernovae and other explosive transients per year, and these numbers will increase exponentially once the Vera Rubin Observatory LSST survey starts in 2024-2025. We use primarily optical follow-up and pre-explosion observations (imaging and long-slit/IFU spectroscopy) of supernovae and their host galaxies obtained with a variety of telescopes (small to large aperture) to constrain their progenitor stars, explosion and powering mechanisms. We are interested in studying core-collapse and thermonuclear supernovae, including normal events and rarer sub-classes and weirdos. We are also interested in other types of explosive transients such as tidal disruption events (and their host galaxies) and intermediate luminosity transients.
