Christine Done

Christine Done is a Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Durham, specializing in high-energy astrophysics. She earned her PhD from the University of Cambridge, followed by an NRC fellowship at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center and senior research fellowships in the UK. She joined Durham in 2000 and was promoted to full Professor in 2006. She holds a Visiting Professor position at the Kavli Institute for Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (University of Tokyo) and chairs Science Working Groups for the XRISM and Athena X-ray missions.

Her research explores black hole accretion processes, X-ray emissions from galactic and supermassive black holes, and relativistic environments. Key interests include radiation mechanisms in extreme gravity, accretion disk dynamics, and AGN/quasar variability. She utilizes space-based observatories like XRISM, IXPE, and Suzaku to study phenomena inaccessible from Earth.

Her publications focus on X-ray spectroscopy, accretion disk instabilities, AGN winds, and black hole spin measurements. Recent work emphasizes polarization studies, disk-corona interactions, and multi-wavelength correlations in quasars. She has contributed to understanding thermal winds in X-ray binaries and developed models for AGN variability and feedback.

Awards & Honors:

• Royal Astronomical Society George Darwin Lectureship (2019)
• Stephen Murray Distinguished Visitor Program, Harvard (2018)

She teaches Special Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and General Relativity at Durham. She directs research initiatives and advises on international space missions, including XRISM and Athena. Her lab collaborations span NASA, JAXA, and ESA projects, focusing on next-generation X-ray telescopes.