Research Interests

I work within the Burst group of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) to analyze LIGO data, as well as data from X-ray and optical instruments, to find explosive astrophysical events.

One exciting project that I contribute to is strengthening the collaboration between gravitational and electromagnetic astronomy by working in partnership with optical, X-ray, and radio telescopes to look for electromagnetic signatures of gravitational wave events. During the last science run of the LIGO and Virgo interferometers, we analyzed gravitational wave data with low latency, and performed the first electromagnetic follow-up observations to gravitational wave triggers. Rapid analysis of gravitational wave data and follow-up observations are important in the near-term as a potential means to verify the first gravitational wave detections, and in the long-term as a crucial method of studying astrophysics through multi-messenger astronomy.

In order to understand the nature of the variable sky in the soft X-ray band, I am working with data from all-sky X-ray surveys to find and characterize rare, bright transients.

More Information

• Jonah's CV
• Links to LIGO, and other associated projects appear on the resources page.