Research Areas - (47) Observational Astrophysics

Full path: Astronomy / Astrophysics > Observational Astrophysics

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics | Astrophysics Group @ Imperial
Summary:

Clements studies dusty, infrared-luminous galaxies and gravitationally lensed submillimetre sources using Herschel, ALMA and other facilities to probe galaxy formation and evolution, and works on transient/anomaly detection in large astronomical surveys.

Department(s)/lab(s): Astronomy | Event Horizon Telescope Group (Doeleman) @ Harvard
Summary:

Doeleman founded and directs the Event Horizon Telescope, assembling a global mm-wavelength VLBI network to image the immediate environments of supermassive black holes at horizon-scale resolution — an astronomy pivot whose entire scientific case rests on pushing angular resolution to its fundamental (diffraction/baseline) limit via a globally distributed, highly complex sensor array.

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Department(s)/lab(s): Astronomy | Erb Group @ UWMadison
Summary:

Studies galaxy formation and evolution, dwarf galaxies, stellar populations, and spectroscopic properties of distant-universe galaxies.

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Department(s)/lab(s): Astronomy | French Group @ UIUC
Summary:

Studies tidal disruption events and other optical transients from supermassive black holes using time-domain spectroscopic and photometric surveys.

Department(s)/lab(s): Astronomy | Grier Group @ UWMadison
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Studies active galactic nuclei and supermassive black holes using reverberation-mapping and time-domain spectroscopy (e.g., SDSS).

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Department(s)/lab(s): Physics / Astronomy | Heinz Group @ UWMadison
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Observational high-energy astrophysicist studying black hole X-ray binaries, relativistic jets, and their impact on surrounding gas using X-ray, optical, and radio observations.

Department(s)/lab(s): Astronomy | Johnson VLBI Group @ Harvard
Summary:

Johnson studies neutron stars and black holes via extreme-resolution VLBI imaging, including direct observation of magnetic fields and orbital dynamics near black-hole event horizons as part of the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration, pushing spatial resolution to the horizon scale.

Department(s)/lab(s): Astronomy | Kaplan Group @ UWMadison
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Studies compact objects (neutron stars, white dwarfs) via precision timing measurements and uses existing and new radio arrays to explore the time-domain radio sky.

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Department(s)/lab(s): Astronomy | Liu Group @ UIUC
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Studies active galactic nuclei, supermassive black hole binaries, and time-domain phenomena using large optical/IR spectroscopic and imaging surveys.

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Department(s)/lab(s): Institute of Astronomy | Madhusudhan Exoplanet Group @ Cambridge
Summary:

Madhusudhan pioneered inverse 'atmospheric retrieval' techniques to determine the chemical composition, interior structure and formation history of exoplanets from their spectra, including recent JWST-based investigations of potential biosignature gases on temperate sub-Neptunes (Hycean worlds).