The speaker will be Wen-fai Fong, Einstein Postdoctoral Fellow in Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Arizona. Her talk is entitled “The Energetic World of Gamma-ray Bursts and Gravitational Waves”.
Gamma-ray bursts are the most energetic explosions in the Universe since the Big Bang itself. Decades of research suggest that these explosions are likely caused by the mergers of two neutron stars, or a neutron star and a black hole. In addition to gamma-ray bursts, these merging neutron stars are also expected to produce gravitational wave emission. Here, I introduce you to the exciting world of gamma-ray bursts and describe what it is like to study them. I also discuss the first detection of gravitational waves and prospects for the upcoming revolutionary era of gravitational wave discovery.
Biography:
Wen-fai grew up in a suburb outside of Rochester, NY. She received double Bachelor’s degrees in Physics and Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2008, and earned her Ph.D. in Astronomy & Astrophysics from Harvard University in 2014, where she worked with Professor Edo Berger. For her dissertation research, she undertook a multi-wavelength observational campaign to uncover the elusive origin of short-duration gamma-ray bursts, a class of highly energetic cosmic explosions. The importance of this work was recognized by Harvard’s 2014 Edward L. Fireman Fellowship for experimental astrophysics, and was the recipient of the 2016 American Physical Society Prize for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis in Astrophysics. She was subsequently awarded an Einstein Postdoctoral Fellowship, and started a position at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory in 2014. There, she took advantage of the exceptional observational access to facilities ranging from 1- to 11-meters in diameter to continue unraveling the mysteries enshrouding cosmic explosions. In addition to research, Wen-fai is also passionate about mentoring. Recognizing the importance of her own mentors, Wen-fai has founded mentoring programs for graduate students at both Harvard and the University of Arizona.