PhD Student Awarded Discover Grant (2024):
PhD student Domenica Garzon, in collaboration with Prof. Helvi Witek and Dr. Roland Haas, has been awarded a Discover Grant. This grant, obtained through the ACCESS allocation system, will support their cutting-edge research in Gravitational Physics. The project leverages high-performance computing resources to advance the study of black hole dynamics. Learn more about the allocation system here: ACCESS Allocations: Prepare Requests

PhD Student  Wins Prestigious AAUW Doctoral Fellowship (2024):
PhD student Domenica Garzon for receiving the highly esteemed AAUW Fellowship. This fellowship recognizes her research in theoretical physics, with a focus on general relativity and black hole dynamics. The AAUW Fellowship highlights Domenica’s dedication to advancing women in STEM fields.

CarpetX hackathon (July 2024) Cheng-Hsin or Deborah:
The 2-week CarpetX hackathon/working workshop was successfully hosted at NCSA, bringing together 14 CarpetX developers from UIUC, Perimeter Institute, Louisiana State University, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Idaho, and University of Texas at Austin. Together the team advanced the core functionalities and physics modules for CarpetX, including spacetime evolution, GRMHD, subcycling in time, multi-patch coordinate system, code generation, and more.

Deborah gives plenary talk at 15th International LISA Symposium in Dublin, Ireland (July 2024):
The LISA Symposium is held every two years, bringing together hundreds of scientists from around the globe to discuss topics related to the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. The first since the official adoption of LISA as an ESA mission, this year’s symposium was held in Dublin, Ireland in July. Deborah Ferguson was invited to give a plenary talk on the challenges facing numerical relativity as we prepare for the unprecedented sensitivity of LISA.

Chloe Richards gives invited talk at New Frontiers in Strong Gravity workshop in Benasque, Spain (July 2024):
Graduate student, Chloe Richards, is invited to present her work studying the evolution of scalar fields evolving in black hole spacetimes in a talk titled, “Black holes simulations in axi-dilaton gravity”. 

Chloe Richards passes preliminary exams (May 2024):
Third-year graduate student, Chloe Richards, passes preliminary examination after presenting her work completed as a part of her graduate research titled “Black hole simulations in quadratic gravity”, officially becoming a PhD candidate.

Frederick Pardoe passes preliminary exams (April 2024):
Third-year graduate student, Frederick Pardoe, passes preliminary examination after presenting work completed as a part of his graduate research titled “Quadratic Scalar Gauss-Bonnet Gravity in Close Encounters and Anti-de Sitter Space”, officially becoming a PhD candidate.

Witek group goes to APS (April 2024) :
Members of the Witek group travelled to Sacramento for the 2024 American Physical Society April Meeting. PhD students Freddy Hancock, Noora Ghadiri, Chloe Richards, Freddy Pardoe, Domenica Garzon, and Cheng-Hsin Cheng presented their research at the conference. 

Cheng-Hsin Cheng passes preliminary exams (February 2024):
Fourth-year graduate student, Cheng-Hsin Cheng, passes preliminary examination after presenting his work completed as a part of his graduate research titled “Impact of ultra-light scalars on binary black holes”, officially becoming a PhD candidate.