I am pleased to announce that Korbin Waters’s latest paper, A Supermassive Black Hole Mass Measurement in NGC 5102 with Schwarzschild Orbit-superposition Modeling, has been officially published in ApJ. The paper addresses one of the gaps in our knowledge: the low-mass end of the black hole mass function. There, dynamical mass measurements are still rare […]
I am excited to share that my graduate student CJ Harris will be presenting their research on binary supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the 16th International LISA Symposium this summer. The event will be held in College Park, Maryland, from July 6–10. CJ’s work investigates the evolution and detection prospects of these massive systems, and their attendance […]
We are pleased to share that group member Korbin Waters has received a Rackham Graduate Student Research Grant. These funds are designed to support Rackham graduate students in carrying out research that advances their progress toward their degree. This grant will facilitate Korbin’s upcoming research visit to Chile to collaborate with Neil Nagar and his research group. The primary focus of […]
I am pleased to announce that Cayenne Matt’s latest paper—Inferring MBH–Mbulge Evolution from the Gravitational-Wave Background—has been officially published in The Astrophysical Journal. This work addresses a major question in modern multi-messenger astronomy: why is the observed gravitational-wave background (GWB) amplitude significantly higher than standard astrophysical models predict? By comparing semi-analytic models with the observed GWB spectrum, […]
I am thrilled to highlight the exceptional work of CJ Harris, who has just submitted a significant new paper to AAS Journals. CJ is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Michigan and is officially on the postdoc market (see their CV). Their latest research provides a critical analysis of how stellar scattering is likely to […]
Along with CJ Harris and Cayenne Matt, I attended the 2025 (11th ~annual??) Compact Objects in Michigan and Ontario meeting. CJ and Cayenne gave excellent talks on their most recent research, including Cayenne’s recently submitted paper and CJ’s very close to submission paper.
I recently attended the International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA) 2025 meeting in Pasadena, CA. It was a highly valuable experience. A highlight for our group was Cayenne Matt‘s talk, ”Multimessenger Constraints on Evolution of Black Hole Scaling Relations.“ Their modeling indicates that gravitational wave background data requires either a very top-heavy galaxy stellar function or a higher […]
I am thrilled to announce that Cayenne Matt has been awarded the highly competitive Frontera fellowship! This incredible achievement, which they received in mid-April and officially began on June 1st, recognizes their groundbreaking computational work on the multimessenger studies of supermassive black hole evolution. Cayenne’s proposed research is poised to revolutionize our understanding of how […]
I’m thrilled to highlight the outstanding research contributions of four talented undergraduate students who have been working with me and CJ Harris this past academic year: Maria Herrmann (she/her), Eva Jaku (she/her), August Moser (he/him), and Olivia Korensky (he/him).
I am thrilled to announce that CJ Harris has been voted in as a full member of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav). As a dedicated and innovative researcher in our astronomy and astrophysics program, CJ has significantly contributed to advancing our understanding of binary supermassive black holes through a multimessenger approach. […]