LIGO@UMN

Prof. Michael Coughlin is an assistant professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota. His research includes the modeling and observations of gravitational waves and electromagnetic signals to characterize binary neutron star mergers. He is deeply involved in various programs for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Zwicky Transient Facility, and is the project scientist of the optical imager on the Kitt Peak 2.1 meter telescope, known as the Kitt Peak EMCCD Demonstrator, as well as the low-resolution spectrograph, known as the SED Machine, which will replace it, searching for both LIGO and future sources of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA).

Prof. Vuk Mandic is an Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota. His research includes searches for the stochastic background of gravitational waves, sources of such a background, development of gravitational-wave detectors, and searches for dark matter. He leads the Data Science in Multi-Messenger Astrophysics training program for graduate students.

Dr. Muhammed Cholayil

Sharan Banagiri

William Benoit is a second year physics graduate student working with Dr. Michael Coughlin. His research concerns the use of machine learning pipelines on LIGO data for the purposes of signal denoising and gravitational wave detection.

Alexander Criswell

Erik Floden is a fourth year physics graduate student working with Dr. Vuk Mandic. His research is focused on the search for the stochastic gravitational wave background. In particular, he is interested in searches that identify anisotropies in this background, and his work involves investigating optimal search methods.

Kiet Pham is a first year graduate student working with Dr. Vuk Mandic in searching for the stochastic gravitational wave background and LIGO detector characterization. He is working on developing a fast and robust parameter estimation module for the python based cross-correlation analysis pipeline. His research also involves optimizing the current monitoring tools on the Physical Environmental Channels of the LIGO detectors and investigating different search methods for transient noise lines in the data to prepare for the upcoming observing runs.

Rich Ormiston

Andrew Toivonen is a second year graduate student in astrophysics working with Dr. Michael Coughlin on low-latency alerts for gravitational wave events. Upon detection of a gravitational wave signal from a merger of neutron stars or black holes, an alert needs to be sent out within seconds alerting astronomers to search for the electromagnetic counterpart to the gravitational wave event. These alerts must contain crucial information about the event, and he is investigating the resulting distributions of these binary neutron star and neutron star-black hole mergers to better inform the alerts. He is also a member of the Data Science in Multi-Messenger Astrophysics program.

Ziyan (Kate) Yang

Haowen Zhong