People
People
The Harvard Astronomy Department faculty are members of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) which is a collaboration of Harvard College Observatory (HCO) and Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO). In addition to Harvard Faculty advisors, Harvard graduate students may also elect to work with SAO scientists.
If you would like to change your personal profile, please contact Mark Palmer at mpalmer@cfa.harvard.edu
Faculty
Charles R. Alcock
calcock@cfa.harvard.eduDonald H. Menzel Professor of Astrophysics
Research Interests: The determination of the composition of cosmic dark matter, innovative surveys of the outer solar system, massive compact halo objects, comets and asteroids. Professor Alcock was educated at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and...
Edo Berger
eberger@cfa.harvard.eduProfessor of Astronomy
Research interests: The study of gamma-ray bursts, optical transients (mainly from the Pan-STARRS project), and magnetic fields in low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. He uses observations across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio to γ-rays...
David Charbonneau
dcharbonneau@cfa.harvard.eduFred Kavli Professor of Astrophysics
Chair of the Department
Research Interests: Detection and characterization of extrasolar planets, with the goal of studying inhabited worlds. In pursuit of this goal I also pursue novel ground-based and space-based instrumentation, and studies of stellar astrophysics...
Xingang Chen
xingang.chen@cfa.harvard.eduSenior Lecturer in Astronomy
Research Interests: Early universe models, primordial density perturbations, cosmic microwave background, large scale structure, dark matter, and string cosmology. Dr. Chen received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2003 and held postdoc positions at...
Liam Connor
liam.connor@cfa.harvard.eduAssistant Professor of Astronomy
Research interests: The origin of Fast Radio Bursts and their application to cosmology; the intersection of AI and astrophysics, in particular computer vision methods for astronomical imaging and ill-posed 3D reconstruction. To advance these subjects, I...
Charlie Conroy
cconroy@cfa.harvard.eduProfessor of Astronomy
Research Interests: Galaxy formation and evolution, connection between galaxies and dark matter halos, stellar population modeling, stellar evolution.
Daniel Eisenstein
deisenstein@cfa.harvard.eduPaul C. Mangelsdorf Professor of Astronomy
Research Interests: Cosmology and extragalactic astronomy with a mix of theoretical and observational methods; the development of the baryon acoustic oscillation method to measure the cosmic distance scale and study dark energy. Professor Eisenstein...
Douglas Finkbeiner
dfinkbeiner@cfa.harvard.eduProfessor of Astronomy and Physics
Professor Finkbeiner was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1971. He graduated from Pioneer High School in 1989, and enrolled in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. His Freshman year he helped build the legendary Sunrunner and was active...
Alyssa A Goodman
agoodman@cfa.harvard.eduRobert Wheeler Willson Professor of Applied Astronomy
Research Associate of the Smithsonian Institution
Research Interests: Goodman's work spans astrophysics, science education, data science, data visualization, and prediction. Her astrophysical research is aimed at understanding how interstellar gas arranges itself into new stars and on new techniques for...
Lars Hernquist
lhernquist@cfa.harvard.eduMallinckrodt Professor of Astrophysics
Research Interests: Theoretical studies of dynamical processes in cosmology and galaxy formation/galaxy evolution. Numerical simulations of stellar dynamical and hydrodynamical systems. Investigations of the physics of compact objects, particularly...
John Asher Johnson
jjohnson@cfa.harvard.eduProfessor of Astronomy
Research Interests: The detection and characterization of exoplanets. Received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Astronomy from UC Berkeley, and his B.S. in physics from the University of Missouri-Rolla (now known as the Missouri University of Science and Technology)...
Lisa Kewley
lisa.kewley@cfa.harvard.eduDirector, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Professor of Astronomy
Lisa Kewley is Director of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. She is Director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Director of the Harvard College Observatory, and Professor of Astrophysics at the Harvard Department of Astronomy...
John M. Kovac
jmkovac@cfa.harvard.eduProfessor of Astronomy and Physics
Director of Graduate Studies
Research Interests: His cosmology research focuses on observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) to reveal signatures of the physics that drove the birth of the universe, the creation of its structure, and its present-day expansion. His...
Avi Loeb
aloeb@cfa.harvard.eduFrank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science
Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University and a bestselling author (in lists of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, L'Express and more). He received a PhD in...
Morgan MacLeod
morgan.macleod@cfa.harvard.eduLecturer in Astronomy
Morgan MacLeod is a theoretical and computational astrophysicist interested in the interactive moments in stellar lifetimes. His research draws on a range of techniques to model the appearance of stellar mergers, collisions, explosions, and planet...
Ramesh Narayan
rnarayan@cfa.harvard.eduThomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences
Research Interests: Gravitational lensing; accretion disks; black holes; gamma-ray bursts. Publications: astro-ph , ADS
Karin Öberg
koberg@cfa.harvard.eduProfessor of Astronomy
Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences
Research Interests: Astrochemistry and its impact on planet formation, including the compositions of nascent planets. These topics are addressed using a combination of laboratory ice experiments, spatially and spectrally resolved millimeter observations...
Philip M Sadler
psadler@cfa.harvard.eduF.W. Wright Senior Lecturer in the Department of Astronomy
Director, Science Education Department
Research Interests: Celestial navigation, developing graduate students' teaching skills, the STEM career pipeline, success in pre-college and introductory college STEM coursework, assessment and test construction, and the enhancement of the skills of...
Dimitar Sasselov
Phillips Professor of Astronomy
Director, Origins of Life Initiative
Research Interests: Professor Sasselov studies the interaction between light and matter (radiative transfer) from stars and exoplanets to biomolecules at the origins of life, and astrobiology in general. He runs a photochemistry lab exploring the origins...
Christopher Stubbs
stubbs@physics.harvard.eduSamuel C. Moncher Professor of Physics and of Astronomy
Research Interests: Foundations of gravitational physics, searches for dark matter, and observational cosmology. Christopher Stubbs is an experimental physicist working at the interface between particle physics, cosmology and gravitation. His interests...
Andrew Vanderburg
avanderburg@cfa.harvard.eduAssistant Professor of Astronomy
Director of Undergraduate Studies
My research focuses on studying exoplanets, or planets which orbit stars other than the Sun. I am interested in developing cutting-edge techniques and methods to discover new planets outside of our solar system, and studying the planets we find to learn...
Ashley Villar
Assistant Professor of Astronomy
Research Interests: Theoretical and observational studies of extragalactic transients, including core-collapse supernovae and kilonovae. Development of statistical and deep learning methodologies for wide-field surveys, such as the Vera C. Rubin...
Professor Emeritus
Jonathan E. Grindlay
jgrindlay@cfa.harvard.eduRobert Treat Paine Professor of Practical Astronomy, Emeritus
Research Interests: High Energy Astrophysics: Studies of accretion onto compact objects (black holes, neutron stars and white dwarfs). Development of detectors and telescopes for wide-field imaging surveys of black holes discovered in soft-to-hard X-rays...
Robert P. Kirshner
rkirshner@cfa.harvard.eduClowes Research Professor of Science, Emeritus
Research interests: Observations of supernovae for themselves and for cosmology using HST, Magellan, MMT, and the Whipple Observatory. Use of rest frame infrared observations for Type Ia supernovae to improve measurements of dark energy properties...
James M. Moran
jmoran@cfa.harvard.eduDonald H. Menzel Professor of Astrophysics, Emeritus
Research Interests: Radio Astronomy, Supermassive Black Holes, Massive Star Formation, Active Galactic Nuclei, Extragalactic Distance Scale, Cosmic Masers. Instrumentation: Astronomical Detectors and Telescopes , Very Long Baseline Interferometers...
Robert Noyes
rnoyes@cfa.harvard.eduResearch Professor of Astronomy, Emeritus
Research Interests Solar and stellar seismology; solar structure and dynamics; detection and characterization of planets around other stars; origin and evolution of planetary systems. Publications ADS Abstract and Article database. ArXiv astro-ph preprint...
George Rybicki
grybicki@cfa.harvard.eduProfessor of the Practice of Astronomy, Emeritus
Research Interests Radiative processes and radiative transfer in stellar atmospheres and X-ray sources; radiation hydrodynamics; stellar and galactic dynamics. Publications ADS Abstract and Article database. ArXiv astro-ph preprint archive.
Irwin Shapiro
ishapiro@cfa.harvard.eduTimken University Professor, Emeritus
Research Interests: Radio and radar techniques: applications to astrometry, astrophysics, geophysics, planetary physics, and tests of theories of gravitation; Pre-college and college science education: curriculum development and teacher training...
Graduate Students
Mouza Almualla
mouza.almualla@cfa.harvard.eduGraduate Student
Research interests: galaxy formation, Epoch of Reionization
Wasundara Athukoralalage
wathukoralalage@g.harvard.eduGraduate Student
Research interests: Multiwavelength transients, fast radio bursts
Olga Borodina
olga.borodina@cfa.harvard.eduGraduate Student
Research interests: Galaxy evolution. I run hydrodynamical simulations to study AGN feedback.
Erandi Chavez
erandi.chavez@cfa.harvard.eduGraduate Student
Research interests: Supermassive black holes, black hole jets
Siyuan (Sissi) Chen
siyuan.chen@cfa.harvard.eduGraduate Student
Research interest: Gravitational Wave Astronomy and Multiwavelength Transients
Kaylee de Soto
Graduate Student
Adam Distler
adam.distler@cfa.harvard.eduGraduate Student
Research Interests: Exoplanet Detection and Characterization, Dynamics
Victoria DiTomasso
victoria.ditomasso@cfa.harvard.eduGraduate Student
Research Interests: Exoplanets and low mass stars
Samuel Feyan
samuel.feyan@cfa.harvard.eduGraduate Student
Research Interests: Theory of compact objects like neutron stars and black holes
Walter (Will) Golay
Graduate Student
Research interests: Radio transients and stellar radio emission
Xinze (Sunny) Guo
xinze.guo@cfa.harvard.eduGraduate Student
Research Interests: multiwavelength transients and supermassive black holes
Sonja Koehler
sonja.koehler@cfa.harvard.eduGraduate Student
Research interests: galaxy formation and evolution, Epoch of Reionization, cosmological simulations
Ralf Konietzka
ralf.konietzka@cfa.harvard.eduGraduate Student
Ralf Konietzka's research focuses on cosmology and extragalactic astronomy, with a specific emphasis on Fast Radio Bursts, a new class of cosmological transients. Using a combination of numerical simulations, analytic theory, observations, and data...
Matthew Leung
matthew.leung@cfa.harvard.eduGraduate Student
NSERC Canada Postgraduate Scholar
Research Interests: Instrumentation, Machine Learning, Exoplanets
Samuel McCarty
samuel.mccarty@cfa.harvard.eduGraduate Student
Research interests: Radio astronomy, gravitational lensing, cosmology
Bao ("Tintin") Nguyen
tintin.nguyen@cfa.harvard.eduGraduate Student
Tintin is broadly interested in astrophysical black holes of all sizes and scales over cosmic time, across the electromagnetic and gravitational wave spectra. He is a member of the Event Horizon Telescope and the Black Hole Explorer collaboration. He...
Theo O'Neill
theo.oneill@cfa.harvard.eduGraduate Student
NSF Graduate Research Fellow Research interests: Interstellar medium, Star formation, Statistics
Catherine Petretti
catherine.petretti@cfa.harvard.eduGraduate Student
Research interests: Cosmic inflation, early universe cosmology, theory
Anya Phillips
Graduate Student
I use N-body simulations to study the detailed dynamics of tidally-disrupted globular clusters (stellar streams).
Sophia Ridolfo
Graduate Student
Fulbright PhD Scholar
Research interests: galaxy evolution, star formation, interstellar medium physics Fulbright PhD Scholar
Clara Ross
Graduate Student
Helen Shao
helen.shao@cfa.harvard.eduGraduate Student
Research interests : CMB and large-scale structure cosmology, Machine Learning
Ana Sofia Uzsoy
ana_sofia.uzsoy@cfa.harvard.eduGraduate Student
Research Interests: astrostatistics, machine learning
Srisurya Karthik Yadavalli
karthik.yadavalli@cfa.harvard.eduGraduate Student
I study core-collapse supernovae – the violent explosions of massive stars when they reach the end of their life. These supernovae are so violent and bright that they can be seen across hundreds of megaparsecs from distant galaxies! Because this explosion...
Qijia Zhou
qijia.zhou@cfa.harvard.eduGraduate Student
Research Interests: Astrochemistry, protoplanetary disks, planet formation, origins of life My name is pronounced Qijia (chee-jah) Zhou (zo).
Peixin Zhu
peixin.zhu@cfa.harvard.edu Research interests: Galaxy evolution, active galactic neclei, galaxy metallicity, shocks
Lecturers and Research Fellows
Sean Andrews
sandrews@cfa.harvard.eduSAO Astrophysicist
Harvard Lecturer in Astronomy
Research Andrews' research is focused on star and planet formation, with particular emphasis on making astronomical measurements related to the structure and evolution of protoplanetary disks around young stars. The physical conditions and material...
Shep Doeleman
sdoeleman@cfa.harvard.eduSAO Astronomer
Harvard Senior Research Fellow
My research focuses on studying super massive black holes with sufficient resolution to directly observe the event horizon. To do this our group assembles global networks of telescopes that observe at mm wavelengths to create an Earth-size virtual...
Daniel Fabricant
daniel.fabricant@cfa.harvard.eduSAO Astrophysicist
Associate Director, Optical & Infrared Division
Lecturer in Astronomy
Research interests: Large optical IR telescopes and instruments
Lincoln Greenhill
greenhill@cfa.harvard.eduSAO Radio Astronomer
Harvard Senior Research Fellow
Greenhill is a Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Radio Astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. His primary research interest in observational cosmology is the Dark Age and Epoch of Reionization. He also...
Matthew Holman
mholman@cfa.harvard.eduSAO Astrophysicist
Lecturer in Astronomy
Research Studies of the long-term dynamics of our solar system and extrasolar planetary systems. Observational surveys for Kuiper belt objects, Centaurs, and outer planet satellites using Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), Cerro Tololo Inter-American...
Michael Johnson
mjohnson@cfa.harvard.eduSAO Astrophysicist
Lecturer in Astronomy
Research Interests: I study the most compact objects in the universe – neutron stars and black holes – through imaging at extreme resolutions. Over the past few years, I have pursued direct observations of magnetic fields and orbital dynamics near a black...
David Latham
dlatham@cfa.harvard.eduSenior Astronomer at SAO
Lecturer in Astronomy
Research Exoplanets have been my main research interest in recent years, initially with a focus on the detection of candidate planets, both with radial-velocity surveys and with space missions such as Kepler and TESS. Now my focus is on the confirmation...
Morgan MacLeod
morgan.macleod@cfa.harvard.eduLecturer in Astronomy
Morgan MacLeod is a theoretical and computational astrophysicist interested in the interactive moments in stellar lifetimes. His research draws on a range of techniques to model the appearance of stellar mergers, collisions, explosions, and planet...
Christopher S. Moore
christopher.s.moore@cfa.harvard.eduSmithsonian Astrophysicist
Astronomy Department Research Associate
Chris’ research interests include the atmosphere of stars. Currently, focusing on constraining solar coronal heating mechanisms during quiescence and flares. Specifically, working on techniques to improve constraints on the plasma temperature distribution...
Kathy Reeves
kreeves@cfa.harvard.eduSAO Astrophysicist
Project Scientist of the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) on the Hinode mission
Research interests: Energy transfer in eruptions on the Sun, including solar flares and coronal mass ejections. I use both observational data and numerical simulations to trace the energy release in solar eruptions.
Hossein Sadeghpour
hsadeghpour@cfa.harvard.eduDirector of the Institute for Theoretical Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics (ITAMP)
SAO Senior Scientist
Harvard Senior Research Fellow
Hossein Sadeghpour is the director of the Institute for Theoretical Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics (ITAMP) at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. ITAMP ( itamp.harvard.edu) is funded by the NSF. He is also...
Jenna Samra
jsamra@cfa.harvard.eduLecturer in Astronomy
SAO Astrophysicist
Jenna Samra develops telescopes and spectrometers to observe the solar corona at extreme ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths from aircraft, balloons, and satellites. Her research interests include solar magnetometry, optical design, modeling, and...
Andrew Szentgyorgyi
saint@cfa.harvard.eduSAO Astrophysicist
Lecturer in Astronomy
Szentgyorgyi has worked in a number of astrophysical areas including neutrino astronomy, very high energy gamma astronomy and X-ray astronomy. For the last two decades he has focused on optical high dispersion stellar spectroscopy with a focus on...
Kim-Vy Tran
kim-vy.tran@cfa.harvard.eduLecturer in Astronomy
Associate Director for Internal Relations, CfA
Research Interests: Galaxy formation and evolution; Strong gravitational lensing; Extragalactic surveys; Cosmology; Space-based observations Kim-Vy Tran has been a professional astronomer for 20+ years. Prior to joining the CfA, she was a professor at the...
Grant Tremblay
grant.tremblay@cfa.harvard.eduLecturer in Astronomy
SAO Astrophysicist
Research Interests: Galaxy clusters, galaxy evolution and dynamics, AGN, cosmology, space policy and mission development
David J Wilner
dwilner@cfa.harvard.eduSAO Astrophysicist
Lecturer in Astronomy
Research Wilner's main research interests are (1) circumstellar disks and the formation of planets, and (2) the development of aperture synthesis techniques. Some of his science program makes use of the Submillimeter Array near the summit of Mauna Kea...
Jennifer Yee
jyee@cfa.harvard.eduSAO Astrophysicist
Lecturer in Astronomy
Research Interests: Microlensing searches for exoplanets, brown dwarfs, and other objects, including detailed characterization using space-based microlensing parallaxes.
Catherine Zucker
catherine.zucker@cfa.harvard.eduSAO Astrophysicist
Lecturer in Astronomy
Research Interests: Structure and dynamics of the Milky Way, the interstellar medium, star formation, and young stellar populations. I leverage new and upcoming photometric, astrometric, and spectroscopic surveys to construct higher-dimensional models of...
Staff
Allyson Bieryla
abieryla@cfa.harvard.eduManager of the Astronomy Lab and Clay Telescope
Assistant DUS in Astronomy
Mark Palmer
mpalmer@cfa.harvard.eduAcademic Coordinator
Mark joins the Astronomy Department after serving as Group Administrator of the ITC for nine years. His retirement has been set for Thursday, June 30, 2033--please save the date! Outside of work, Mark dances Blues and Fusion (and occasionally Swing), runs...
