Black holes are the most extreme objects in our universe. Thanks to incredibly sensitive instruments — known as gravitational-wave observatories — we can “hear” when two black holes crash into each other. We are now routinely listening to gravitational waves from black holes across the Universe, with hundreds of black holes discovered to date. Dr. Maya Fishbach will summarize what gravitational waves are, how we detect them, and what they are teaching us about black holes, their progenitor stars, and the cosmic expansion history.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr. Maya Fishbach is an Assistant Professor at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA) at the University of Toronto. Before moving to Toronto, she was a NASA Einstein Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University. She earned her PhD in Astronomy & Astrophysics from the University of Chicago in 2020. Fishbach started her PhD studies in the same month as the first direct detection of gravitational waves in September 2015. This exciting discovery motivated Fishbach to enter the emerging field of gravitational-wave astrophysics. In Fishbach’s research, she “listens” to these gravitational waves in order to piece together what they are teaching us about our Universe.