Tuesday, March 10, 2015 at 7:30 p.m – Bowen Hall, Princeton University

The AAAP welcomes Princeton University observational astrophysicist Andy Goulding as its March 10th guest speaker. Dr. Goulding graduated from the University of Durham (UK) with a MSc in Theoretical Physics in 2007, and in 2010, completed his doctoral dissertation at the UK Institute for Computational Cosmology on the identification of the full population of active galactic nuclei in the nearby Universe. Goulding moved to the US to take a position as a Smithsonian research fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Boston, and moved to Princeton University in 2014 as a research associate in the department of astrophysical sciences.

Andy’s research is concentrated around the understanding of the physical mechanisms by which all supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies grow, and the investigation of the interplay between black hole growth, in the form of Active Galactic Nuclei, and the properties of their host galaxies. Using some of the largest and sophisticated telescopes ever constructed, he studies how known observational and theoretical relations between black holes and their galaxies become established: Are black holes hidden from our view by the same material that causes them to grow? If so, how did this fuel arrive at the black hole, and what is its geometric configuration – does the geometry affect the rate at which the black hole grows? What was the trigger for the growth of the black hole; does dark matter have a role to play in this; and are growing black holes preferentially found in particular galaxies?

Don’t miss this exciting presentation describing some of the more cutting edge, dynamic research occurring in the current astrophysics community.