Join us on Wednesday, April 22 at 2:30 PM in White Hall, Room G09. Tiziana DiMatteo (Carnegie Mellon) will present a talk titled "Massive Black Holes: Insights from Cosmological Simulations."

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Abstract

The enigmatic journey of massive black holes—from their origins as seed populations in the early universe to their growth through accretion and mergers—is a vastly multi-scale phenomenon deeply connected with the process of galaxy formation. Using cutting-edge cosmological simulations,  we can unravel aspects of the co-evolution of galaxies and black holes. The simulations provide insights into the elusive population of intermediate mass black holes and also shed light on some of the largest black holes and their mergers. They are invaluable for guiding observational strategies and interpreting current and upcoming data.

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Biography

Tiziana Di Matteo is a Professor of Physics and Director of the McWilliams Center for Cosmology and Astrophysics at Carnegie Mellon University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, UK in 1998, then an Einstein Fellow at Harvard and as junior faculty at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Germany. A leading theorist in high-energy astrophysics and cosmology, Di Matteo employs large-scale supercomputing to simulate galaxy formation and the growth of massive black holes—from the cosmic dawn to the present day. She also serves as a Scientific Editor for the Astrophysical Journal, a premier publication  of the American Astronomical Society. In 2014, she was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society Society. Di Matteo has been honored with a Pittsburgh Foundation Fellowship and the Carnegie Science Center Award for Excellence. Among her many service roles, she served on the NSF Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure, and is a member of the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration, and elected council member for LISA Consortium.