People

ITC Director

Avi Loeb

Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science
Chair, Department of Astronomy
Director, Institute for Theory and Computation (ITC)
Avi Loeb is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University. He serves as Chair of the Department of Astronomy, Founding Director of Harvard's Black Hole Initiative and Director of theInstitute for Theory and Computation (ITC).... Read more about Avi Loeb
Professor Avi Loeb's Website
Avi Loeb's Publications (Astro-ph)
Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-51
Cambridge, MA, 02138
aloeb@cfa.harvard.edu
p: (617) 496-6808

Senior ITC Members

Avi Loeb

Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science
Chair, Department of Astronomy
Director, Institute for Theory and Computation (ITC)

Avi Loeb is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University. He serves as Chair of the Department of Astronomy, Founding Director of Harvard's Black Hole Initiative and Director of theInstitute for Theory and Computation (ITC).... Read more about Avi Loeb

Professor Avi Loeb's Website

Avi Loeb's Publications (Astro-ph)

Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-51
Cambridge, MA, 02138

aloeb@cfa.harvard.edu

p: (617) 496-6808

Xingang Chen

Senior Lecturer Harvard Astronomy

Research interests: Theoretical cosmology, including: early universe models; primordial density perturbations; cosmic microwave background; large...

Charlie Conroy

Professor of Astronomy

Research Interests: Galaxy formation and evolution, connection between galaxies and dark matter halos, stellar population modeling, stellar evolution....

Rosanne Di Stefano

Lecturer / SAO Astrophysicist

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street,
Office: P-227
Cambridge, MA 02138
MS-51

rdistefano@cfa.harvard.edu

p: 617-495-7091

Daniel Eisenstein

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.... Read more about Daniel Eisenstein

Professional Website

Perkin Lab, P-326
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-20
Cambridge, MA 02138

deisenstein@cfa.harvard.edu

p: (617) 495-7530

Douglas Finkbeiner

Professor of Astronomy and of Physics

... Read more about Douglas Finkbeiner

Professional Website

View his students

Perkins Lab, P-222
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden St. MS-51
Cambridge, MA 02138

dfinkbeiner@cfa.harvard.edu

p: (617) 384-8393

Lars Hernquist

Mallinckrodt 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 neutron stars and the interplay between thermal and magnetic processes in strongly magnetized neutron stars.... Read more about Lars Hernquist

Institute for Theory and Computation

Perkin Lab, P-235
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden St., MS-51
Cambridge, MA 02138

lhernquist@cfa.harvard.edu

p: (617) 496-4180

Matthew Holman

Lecturer / SAO Astrophysicist

... Read more about Matthew Holman

Personal Website

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street,
Office: P-229
Cambridge, MA 02138
MS-51

mholman@cfa.harvard.edu

p: 617-496-7775

John Asher Johnson

Professor of Astronomy

Research Interests: The detection and characterization of exoplanets.... Read more about John Asher Johnson

Professional Website

Banneker Institute

Perkin Lab, P-340
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

jjohnson@cfa.harvard.edu

p: (617) 496-9820

Ramesh Narayan

Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences

Research Interests: Gravitational lensing; accretion disks; black holes; gamma-ray bursts.... Read more about Ramesh Narayan

Professional Website

Institute for Theory and Computation

Perkin Lab, P-232
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-51
Cambridge, MA 02138

rnarayan@cfa.harvard.edu

p: (617)496-9393

Karin Öberg

Professor of Astronomy

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, and theory.... Read more about Karin Öberg

Research Group

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

koberg@cfa.harvard.edu

p: (617)495-3752

Irwin Shapiro

Timken University Professor

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.... Read more about Irwin Shapiro

Perkin Lab, P-217
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-51
Cambridge, MA 02138

ishapiro@cfa.harvard.edu

p: (617) 495-7300

Christopher Stubbs

Samuel C. Moncher Professor of Physics and of Astronomy

Research Interests: Foundations of gravitational physics, searches for dark matter, and observational cosmology.... Read more about Christopher Stubbs

Professional Website

Students

Publications: Google Scholar

Christopher Stubbs
Samuel C. Moncher Professor of Physics and of Astronomy
17 Oxford Street
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138
stubbs@physics.harvard.edu

The group’s lab and office space are located at 106 McKay at the Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology.

stubbs@physics.harvard.edu

p: (617)495-1454

Associate Senior ITC Members

Charles Alcock

Director, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Professor of Astronomy, Harvard University

Charles Alcock's Website

Charles Alcock's Publications (Astro-ph)

calcock@cfa.harvard.edu

p: 617-495-7100

Eric Keto

Astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Project Scientist for the Submillimeter Array
Associate Senior Member Institute for Theory and Computation

Eric Keto's Website

60 Garden Street, MS 78
Cambridge, MA 02138
Office M-226 (160 Concord Avenue)

eketo@cfa.harvard.edu

p: 617-495-7074

John M. Kovac

Associate Professor of Astronomy and Physics

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 research over the past two decades has involved the design, deployment, and operation of multiple generations of radio telescopes at the Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole.... Read more about John M. Kovac

CMB Group Website

Graduate Students

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS 42
Cambridge, MA 02138

jmkovac@cfa.harvard.edu

p: (617) 496-0611

James M. Moran

Donald H. Menzel Professor of Astrophysics

Research Interests: Radio Astronomy, Supermassive Black Hole, Massive Star Formation, Active Galactic Nuclei, Extragalactic Distance Scale, Cosmic Masers.
Instrumentation: Astronomical Detectors and Telescopes , Very Long Baseline Interferometers... Read more about James M. Moran

Professional Website

Office: M-336
160 Concord Street
Fax: 617-495-7345

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-42
Cambridge, MA 02138

jmoran@cfa.harvard.edu

p: (617)495-7477

Mark Reid

Senior Radio Astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Mark Reid is Senior Radio Astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, part of the...

Dimitar Sasselov

Phillips Professor of Astronomy
Director, Origins of Life Initiative
Senior Advisor in the Sciences for Advanced Study

Research Interests: Professor Sasselov studies, among other things, extrasolar planets, and he's a co-investigator on NASA's Kepler mission, which is monitoring 100,000 stars in a three-year hunt for exoplanets -- including Jupiter-sized giants. Sasselov watches for exoplanets by looking for transits, the act of a planet passing across the face of its star, dimming its light and changing its chemical signature. This simple, elegant way of searching has led to a bounty of newly discovered planets.... Read more about Dimitar Sasselov

Professional Website

Origins of Life

Students

Perkin Lab, P-336
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-16
Cambridge, MA 02138

p: (617) 495-7451

Alexey Vikhlinin

Lecturer / SAO Astrophysicist

Research interests: X-ray studies of galaxy clusters and their applications for cosmology and physics of the intergalactic medium. The main past projects...

Senior Emeritus Members

George Field

Robert Wheeler Wilson Research Professor of Applied Astronomy

... Read more about George Field

Personal Website

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden St.,
Office: P-229
Cambridge, MA 02138
MS 51

Fax: (617) 495-7093

gfield@cfa.harvard.edu

p: (617) 495-7234

George Rybicki

Professor of the Practice of Astronomy

... Read more about George Rybicki

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden St. ,
Office: P-238
Cambridge, MA 02138
MS 51

Fax: (617) 495-7093

grybicki@cfa.harvard.edu

p: (617) 495-7452

Visiting Scholars

Idan Ginsburg

Visiting Scholar

Idan Ginsburg's current research interests include gravitational microlensing as well as planetary formation and evolution.

60 Garden Street, MS-51
Cambridge, MA 02138
Office B-216

iginsburg@cfa.harvard.edu

p: 617-384-7266

Michelle Ntampaka

Data Science Initiative Fellow

Michelle...

Laurie Shaw

Research Associate

I have a diverse range of research interests, from astrophysics and cosmology to finance and economics. I obtained my PhD from Cambridge, studying the... Read more about Laurie Shaw

Laurie's "Statistics Meets Soccer" website

60 Garden Street, MS-51
Cambridge, MA 02138
Office P-224

laurie.shaw@cfa.harvard.edu

Postdocs

Nicola Amorisco

ITC Fellow

Nicola Amorisco holds concurrent Fellowships at the ITC and at MPI for Astrophysics in Germany. His research focuses on tidal features provide a uniquely...

Richard Anantua

Future Faculty Leaders Fellow and an ITC/BHI Fellow

Black holes are simple objects, yet lie at the core of some of the deepest mysteries in astronomy, cosmology... Read more about Richard Anantua

Professional website

60 Garden Street, MS-51
Cambridge, MA 02138
Office P-218

ranantua@cfa.harvard.edu

Shmuel Bialy

ITC Postdoc

Shmuel's primary research interests are the chemical and thermal structure of the turbulent-multiphase interstellar medium (ISM), with a special...

Ana Bonaca

ITC Fellow

ITC Fellow Ana Bonaca studies how the tidal field of the Milky Way galaxy disrupts globular clusters, and what the resulting debris can tell us about the...

Sownak Bose

ITC Fellow

My research involves the use of large numerical...

Daniel D'Orazio

Einstein Fellow

Dan received a B.Sc. in physics and mathematics from Juniata College after which he moved to the University of Zurich on a Fulbright Fellowship, working on...

Benedikt Diemer

Einstein Fellow

Benedikt obtained his PhD from the University of Chicago before joining the ITC. His research is centered around supercomputer...

Paul Duffell

ITC Postdoc

Paul Duffell received his PhD in Physics from New York University, and spent four years as a prize fellow at UC Berkeley's Theoretical Astrophysics Center...

Razieh Emami

ITC Fellow

Razi's research has recently focused on different topics in Astrophysics. She is particularly interested in various aspects of the observed gravitational...

John Forbes

ITC Fellow

John Forbes' research has recently focused on galaxy evolution from a theoretical perspective. He primarily uses the Enzo adaptive mesh refinement code to...

Samuel Hadden

ITC Fellow

Research interests: Formation and dynamical evolution of the... Read more about Samuel Hadden

60 Garden Street, MS-15
Cambridge, MA 02138
Office B-325

samuel.hadden@cfa.harvard.edu

David M. Hernandez

MPC Fellow and ITC Fellow

I’m interested in orbital dynamics and the dynamical evolution of systems at various scales, such as planetary systems and galaxies. These systems can be... Read more about David M. Hernandez

Publications

60 Garden Street, MS-16
Cambridge, MA 02138
Office B-317

dmhernandez@cfa.harvard.edu

Anna Ijjas

Simons Fellow and ITC Fellow

Anna Ijjas is a theoretical cosmologist. Her research is aimed at the most fundamental questions about the universe: what is the mechanism that ...

Michael Johnson

SAO Einstein Fellow

Michael Johnson studies the most compact objects in the universe – neutron stars and black holes – primarily through imaging at extreme resolutions. Over...

Rahul Kannan

Einstein Fellow and ITC Fellow

Rahul’s research focuses on theoretical and...

Laura Kreidberg

Harvard Society of Fellows Junior Fellow and ITC Fellow

Laura Kreidberg works on characterizing the atmospheres of extrasolar planets.

Laura Kreidberg's Website

60 Garden Street, MS-16
Cambridge, MA 02138
Office B-343

laura.kreidberg@cfa.harvard.edu

Manasvi Lingam

ITC Postdoc

Manasvi's research is primarily in the domains of plasma astrophysics and astrobiology. In the former area, he has undertaken research in plasma waves,... Read more about Manasvi Lingam

60 Garden Street, MS-51
Cambridge, MA 02138
Office P-214

manasvi.lingam@cfa.harvard.edu

Morgan MacLeod

Einstein Fellow and ITC Fellow

Morgan MacLeod is a NASA Einstein Fellow and ITC Member whose research focuses on stellar encounters in binary systems and their imprints on the...

Federico Marinacci

ITC Postdoc

...

Erica Nelson

Hubble Fellowship / ITC Fellowship

Erica’s research program focuses on understanding the emergence of galactic structure: how the universe evolved from its uniform state shortly after the big... Read more about Erica Nelson

Professional website

60 Garden Street, MS-51
Cambridge, MA 02138

Graduate Students

Munazza Alam

Kate Alexander

Graduate Student

Research Interests: Cosmology

... Read more about Kate Alexander

ADS Publications

Professional website

Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-10
Cambridge, MA 02138

Kate's office is A-207

kalexander@cfa.harvard.edu

p: (617) 495-7811

Fernando Becerra

Graduate Student

Research Interests: Numerical simulations, first stars and galaxies, black holes

ADS Publications

Professional Website

Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-10
Cambridge, MA 02138

Fernando's office is A-109

fbecerra@cfa.harvard.edu

p: (617) 496-2525

Peter Blanchard

Graduate Student

Research Interests: Transients (Gamma-ray bursts), Galaxies (formation and evolution); Gravitational lensing

ADS Publications

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-10
Cambridge, MA 02138

Peter's Office is A-103

pblanchard@cfa.harvard.edu

p: 617-495-4141

Theron Carmichael

Graduate Student

Research interests: Exoplanets, binary star spectroscopy

Teaching & Outreach

Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-10
Cambridge, MA 02138
Office: A-103

theron.carmichael@cfa.harvard.edu

p: 617-495-4141

How-Huan "Hope" Chen

Graduate Student

Research Interests: Interstellar medium and star formation

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS 10
Cambridge, MA 02138

Hope's office is A-205

hhchen@cfa.harvard.edu

p: (617) 495-7394

Jieun Choi

Graduate Student

Research Interests: Stellar populations and their evolution as well as galaxy evolution.

ADS Publications

Professional Website

Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-10
Cambridge, MA 02138

jieun.choi@cfa.harvard.edu

p: 617-496-0239

Pierre Christian

Graduate Student

Research Interests: Black holes and strong gravity

ADS Publications

Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-10
Cambridge, MA 02138

Pierre's office is A-108

pchristian@cfa.harvard.edu

p: 617-496-0742

Kunting "Eddie" Chua

Graduate Student

Research Interests: Cosmology, galaxy evolution and computational astrophysics

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS 10
Cambridge, MA 02138

Eddie's office is A-202

kchua@cfa.harvard.edu

p: (617) 496-0802

Benjamin Cook

Graduate Student

Research Interests: Cosmology, large scale structure, galaxy evolution, computation.

Professional Website

ADS Publications

Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS 10
Cambridge, MA 02138

Ben's office is A-106

bcook@cfa.harvard.edu

p: 617-496-0741

James Cornelison

Philip Cowperthwaite

Graduate Student

Research Interests: Time domain astronomy (rapid transients' EM counterparts to GW events, NS-NS merger transients

ADS Publications

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-10
Cambridge, MA 02138

Philip's office is A-103

pcowperthwaite@cfa.harvard.edu

p: 617-495-4141

Brandon Curd

Hannah Diamond-Lowe

Graduate Student

Research interests: exoplanet atmospheric detection & characterization, ground-based instrumentation

Professional Website

Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-10
Cambridge, MA 02138
Office address: A-113

hannah.diamond-lowe@cfa.harvard.edu

p: 617-496-0239

Marion Dierickx

Graduate Student

Research Interests: Galactic formation and evolution, local group dynamics, galactic mergers

Professional Website

ADS Publications

Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-10
Cambridge, MA 02138

Marion's office is A-107

mdierickx@cfa.harvard.edu

p: 617-495-5989

Tarraneh Eftekhari

Graduate Student

Research interests: Radio instrumentation, transients, observational cosmology

ADS Publications

Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-10
Cambridge, MA 02138

Office is A-103
p: (617) 495-4484

teftekhari@cfa.harvard.edu

p: 617-495-4141

Christopher Faesi

Graduate Student

Research Interests: Star and star system formation (galactic and xxtragalactic), observational diagnostics of interstellar gas in star-forming...

Douglas Ferrer

Graduate Student

Research Interests: Numerical cosmology

Professional Website

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS 10
Cambridge, MA 02138

Doug's office: A-214

dferrer@cfa.harvard.edu

p: (617) 496-0702

Lehman Garrison

Graduate Student

Research Interests: Cosmology, galactic dynamics, high-performance computing.

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-10
Cambridge, MA 02138

Lehman's office is A-110

lgarrison@cfa.harvard.edu

p: (617) 496-3908

Delilah Gates

dgates@g.harvard.edu

Staff and Administration

Paul Edmon

ITC Research Computing Associate

pedmon@cfa.harvard.edu

p: 617-945-4115

Uma Mirani

60 Garden Street, MS-51, Room P-242
Cambridge, MA 02138

umirani@cfa.harvard.edu

p: 617-496-5870

Mark Palmer

Program Administrator, Institute for Theory & Computation

60 Garden Street, MS-51, Room P-238
Cambridge, MA 02138

mpalmer@cfa.harvard.edu

p: 617-495-1971

Nina Zonnevylle

Division Administrator, Theoretical Astrophysics

... Read more about Nina Zonnevylle

Theoretical Astrophysics Website

The Black Hole Initiative

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS-51, Rm P-242
Cambridge, MA 02138

nzonnevylle@cfa.harvard.edu

p: 617-495-7962

Sabbatical Visitors

Christopher Kochanek
ITC Sabbatical Professor
Office P-225
60 Garden St., MS 51
Cambridge, MA 02138
The Ohio State University

Chris Kochanek Website

Deepto Chakrabarty
ITC Sabbatical Professor
Office P-225
60 Garden St., MS 51
Cambridge, MA 02138
MIT

Deepto Chakrabarty Website