Michael Nowak

Michael Nowak is a Research Professor of Physics and Associate Director of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. He holds a PhD and MS from Stanford University, and an SB from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

His research focuses on high-energy astrophysical phenomena related to black holes and neutron stars, combining theoretical models of accretion flows, X-ray spectroscopy, and multi-wavelength observational studies using missions like Chandra, XMM-Newton, and NuSTAR. He collaborates with the Event Horizon Telescope team and serves as a Co-Investigator on the proposed Arcus X-ray spectrometer mission.

Nowak’s work bridges observations and theory to understand relativistic jets, coronae, and the dynamics of accretion disks, with applications to supermassive black holes (e.g., Sgr A* and M87*) and stellar-mass systems.

Professional roles include leadership at the McDonnell Center for Space Sciences and prior experience at MIT’s Kavli Institute and postdoctoral positions at JILA and CITA.