About
Emmanuel Fonseca is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at West Virginia University (WVU), joining in Fall 2021. Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University (2016–2021) and completed his Ph.D. in Astronomy at the University of British Columbia (2016). His research focuses on radio astronomy, particularly pulsars and fast radio bursts (FRBs), leveraging facilities like CHIME, the Green Bank Telescope, and NANOGrav. He specializes in using pulsars as laboratories for testing fundamental physics and detecting gravitational waves via pulsar timing arrays.
Education:
- Ph.D. in Astronomy, University of British Columbia (2016)
- M.Sc. in Astronomy, University of British Columbia (2012)
- B.Sc. in Physics and Astronomy, Pennsylvania State University (2010)
Research Interests:
Emmanuel’s work spans three key areas:
- Compact Objects: Investigating neutron stars and extreme environments using pulsar binaries and relativistic dynamics.
- CHIME Pulsar/FRB Science: Developing instrumentation and analyzing data from the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment to study FRBs and pulsars.
- Gravitational Waves: Contributing to NANOGrav’s efforts to detect nanohertz gravitational waves via millisecond pulsar timing arrays.
Collaborations:
He is a core member of NANOGrav and instrumental in maintaining CHIME’s pulsar and FRB backend systems. His work bridges hardware/software development with observational astronomy.
Labs/Teams:
Involved with the CHIME/FRB Collaboration and the NANOGrav Collaboration, advancing both observational infrastructure and theoretical astrophysics.
