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Quasars

Quasars

Accreting supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies

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Name Role Affiliations Email Phone Office Centers Research topics
W. Niel Brandt W. Niel Brandt Faculty Astronomy, Physics wnbrandt@gmail.com +1 814 865 3509 514A Davey Laboratory CTOC Black Holes, Multimessenger Astrophysics, Quasars, Dynamic Universe
Nikko Cleri Nikko Cleri Postdoc Astronomy njc5787@psu.edu N/A 520 Davey Laboratory IGC Quasars
Joseph Colosimo Joseph Colosimo Graduate Student Astronomy jmc1221@psu.edu 1-814-865-0150 413 Davey Laboratory CMA Astroinformatics, Quasars
Abhishek Das Abhishek Das Graduate Student Astronomy, ICDS, Physics ajd6518@psu.edu 321E Thomas Building CMA, IGC Black Holes, Cosmic Rays, Dark Matter, Gravitational Waves, Multimessenger Astrophysics, Neutrinos, Quasars
Laura Duffy Laura Duffy Graduate Student Astronomy lrd48@psu.edu +1 814 865 0419 537 Davey Laboratory CTOC Black Holes, Quasars
Michael Eracleous Michael Eracleous Faculty Astronomy mxe17@psu.edu +1 814 863 6041 414 Davey Laboratory CMA, CTOC Black Holes, Multimessenger Astrophysics, Quasars, Dynamic Universe
Abe Falcone Abe Falcone Faculty Astronomy adf15@psu.edu +1 814 863 5364 516 Davey Laboratory CMA Cosmic Rays, Multimessenger Astrophysics, Quasars, Dynamic Universe
Stephen Kerby Stephen Kerby Graduate Student Astronomy sek289@psu.edu 532C Davey Laboratory CMA Quasars
Victor Liu Victor Liu Graduate Student Astronomy vql5180@psu.edu 6467255201 537 Davey Laboratory IGC Black Holes, Gravitational Waves, Multimessenger Astrophysics, Quasars
Niana Mohammed Niana Mohammed Graduate Student Astronomy nnm5189@psu.edu +1 814 865 0419 537 Davey Laboratory Davey Laboratory CMA, CTOC Black Holes, Multimessenger Astrophysics, Quasars
Mary Ogborn Mary Ogborn Graduate Student Astronomy mko5309@psu.edu 8148637111 8148637111 Davey Laboratory CMA, CTOC Black Holes, Quasars
George Pavlov George Pavlov Faculty Astronomy ggp1@psu.edu +1 814 865 9482 508B Davey Laboratory CMA Quasars, Dynamic Universe
Wei Leong Tee Wei Leong Tee Postdoc Astronomy wmt5159@psu.edu (814) 865-0418 R115 Davey Laboratory IGC Black Holes, Cosmic Surveys, Quasars
Charlotte Ward Charlotte Ward Faculty Astronomy cvw5890@psu.edu 2027585625 418 Davey Laboratory IGC Astroinformatics, Black Holes, Multimessenger Astrophysics, Quasars
Bojun Zhang Bojun Zhang Graduate Student Astronomy bjz5234@psu.edu 8142803409 535A Davey Laboratory IGC Astrostatistics, Black Holes, Quasars

News about Quasars

Astronomers find unexpected accelerating quasar winds around distant black hole
June 11, 2024
Astronomers find unexpected accelerating quasar winds around distant black hole
A team of astronomers, including Penn State researchers, from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has used eight years of monitoring observations to discover unexpected …
Astronomers find unexpected accelerating quasar winds around distant black hole
June 11, 2024
Astronomers find unexpected accelerating quasar winds around distant black hole
A team of astronomers, including Penn State researchers, from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has used eight years of monitoring observations to discover unexpected …
NASA’s Chandra identifies a black hole whose bark is worse than its bite
March 21, 2024
NASA’s Chandra identifies a black hole whose bark is worse than its bite
Astronomers have revealed that a brilliant supermassive black hole is not living up to expectations. Although it is responsible for high levels of radiation and …
The Hobby-Eberly Telescope reaches 25th anniversary milestone
November 3, 2022 priority
The Hobby-Eberly Telescope reaches 25th anniversary milestone
One of the world’s largest optical telescopes, the Hobby-Eberly telescope (HET) at the University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory, is marking 25 years of …
NASA selects STAR-X for $3M mission concept study
August 30, 2022
NASA selects STAR-X for $3M mission concept study
STAR-X, the Survey and Time-domain Astrophysical Research Explorer, a proposed NASA Medium-Class Explorer (MIDEX) mission that includes Penn State astronomer Niel Brandt, has been selected …
About our wordmark
Monica Rincon Ramirez

The IGC wordmark was created by Monica Rincon Ramirez while she was a graduate student at the Institute. Monica enjoys drawing new connections between fundamental theory and observations. Her graduate work included general relativity, loop quantum gravity, and quantum fields in cosmological backgrounds; her thesis focused on effective quantum corrections to gravitational phenomena from spinfoams and applications to cosmology. She received her PhD in 2024.

The wordmark symbolizes the scope of research at the IGC. The base represents quantum gravity, evoking the quantum geometrical picture from spinfoams and loop quantum gravity — approaches studied at the Center for Fundamental Theory. The middle shows galaxies embedded in a smooth surface characteristic of spacetime in general relativity and the larger physical scales studied at the Center for Theoretical and Observational Cosmology. The top curves to an extreme representing a supermassive black hole accompanied by an energetic jet, with a binary black hole pair nearby — the high-energy phenomena studied at the Center for Multimessenger Astrophysics.