Thankful Cromartie
Einstein Research Fellow
Departments and programs
- Astronomy
- CCAPS
Links
Summary
She received her Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on the study of fundamental physics using a class of exotic,rapidly rotating neutron stars called millisecond pulsars (MSPs). She is a full member of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) collaboration, which uses MSPs in the attempt to detect low-frequency gravitational waves from supermassive black holes. In addition to NANOGrav-related work, she uses a relativistic effect called Shapiro delay to precisely measure MSP masses in order to improve our understanding of the physics at play in their ultra-dense interiors. During her time in graduate school, she observed for more than 300 hours using radio telescopes at the Green Bank and Arecibo observatories.