Jeff Hazboun

Jeff earned his master’s from Oregon State University and then his Ph.D. in Physics from Utah State University. Hazboun had two postdoctoral positions, one at the University of Texas and the other at the University of Washington Bothell, both working with the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) Physics Frontier Center. Jeff’s website https://jeffreyhazboun.github.io.

Education

Ph.D., Physics, Utah State University

Research Interests

TBD

Daniel Oliver - Postdoctoral Fellow

Daniel earned his bachelor’s in Physics from Oklahoma State University and then his Ph.D. in Space and Planetary Sciences from the University of Arkansas. His dissertation was on modeling signal confusion noise from extreme mass ratio inspiral (EMRI) peeps for the planned Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission. Daniel is now a postdoctoral fellow working with the North American Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) Physics Frontier Center at Oregon State University. Daniel’s website https://danieljoliver.com/.

Education

B.S. Physics, Oklahoma State University Ph.D. Space and Planetary Sciences, conc. Gravitational Wave Astrophysics, University of Arkansas

Research Interests

Gravitational wave modeling, noise modeling, EMRIs

Jeremy Baier (he/him) - Ph.D. Student

https://jeremy-baier.github.io/.

Jeremy is a 3rd year grad student at Oregon State University where he works with Dr. Hazboun on detector characterization and interstellar medium mitigation. Jeremy is currently co-leading the NANOGrav 15 year custom noise project. He is also interested in detector tuning and sensitivity forecasting.

Jeremy previously worked with Dr. Les Wade and Dr. Madeline Wade in the Kenyon College LIGO Lab on parameterized neutron star equation of state models and searches for gravitational wave scattering.

When he is not in the office, Jeremy enjoys trail running in the OSU research forest and thinking about the pulsar term.

Education

B.A. Math and Physics Kenyon College (2022)

Research Interests

gravitational waves, pulsars, interstellar medium, detector characterization, SMBHBs

Kalista Wayt - Ph.D. Student

Kalista’s main research interests lie in PTA noise analyses, specifically focusing on the true origins of intrinsic red noise. She is trying to determine how spin noise is varies across the MSPs using various computational and analytic tools. However, her true skill set lies in sketching little logos for projects and B-day scheming. If she’s not in the office you can probably catch her at home spending time with her cat or playing board games.

Education

B.A. Math and Physics Kenyon College (2023)

Research Interests

gravitational waves, pulsars noise analyses

Dave Wright - Ph.D. Student

Dave works at the intersection of computational astrophysics, gravitational wave astronomy, and cosmology. His research focuses on developing new methods to extract information about the early universe, supermassive blackholes, and high-energy physics from gravitational waves. Dave’s website https://www.davecwright.org/.

Education

B.S. Math and Physics, M.S. Physics University of Central Florida

Research Interests

Gravitational waves, Cosmology, SMBHBs, Computational Astrophysics

Alberto Diaz Hernandez - Ph.D. Student

Alberto uses optical observations of Active Galactic Nuclei to aid searches for supermassive black hole binaries at their hearts. By studying the statistical properties of this data, he hopes to characterize accretion disk structure and identify promising binary candidates.

Education

B.S. Physics Angelo State University

Research Interests

Those deeply mysterious regions of spacetime which serve as the greatest fountains of electromagnetic energy in the known universe.

Kyle Gourlie - B.S. Student

Kyle is a senior in OSU’s physics program with a minor in Computer Science and Mathematics. Kyle comes from a small town in Oregon called Scio. His research projects are on PTA gravitational wave sensitivities and analysis of uncertainty in pulsar red noise model parameters.

Education

B.S. Physics with Computer Science and Mathematics Minors at Oregon State University

Research Interests

PTA sensitivity, Pulsar noise modeling

Peter Orndoff - Former B.S. Student

Peter’s research focuses on advancing methods to analyze the dark matter power spectra, dark matter over-density statistics, and supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs). His engagement in physics research is driven by a deep curiosity about the conditions of the early universe. Peter’s website: https://peterorndoff.space/.

Education

B.S. Computational Physics Oregon State University

Research Interests

Dark Matter, Gravitational Waves, SMBHBs, Early Universe Conditions

Ian Diaz - Former M.S. Student

Ian Díaz graduated from OSU in the summer of 2024 with a Master’s in physics; his research was titled “A Red Noise Analysis of PSR B1937+21, PSR J1824-2452A, and PSR J0218+4232 using NICER X-ray Timing Data”. Ian also received the Graduate Certificate in University Teaching and his Bachelor’s degree in physics from OSU. After receiving a Master’s degree, Ian moved to Santiago, Chile to pursue a PhD in Astronomy.

For fun, Ian plays many games such as Stellaris, Minecraft, chess, and D&D; he also enjoys being outdoors, hiking, running, and generally being social with friends.