About
Thomas Connor is an astrophysicist at the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) within the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. Previously, he served as a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)/Caltech, focusing on extreme AGN in the early Universe and operations at the NuSTAR Science Operations Center. He also held postdoctoral positions at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science, studying galaxy clusters and their connections to the cosmic web. His research integrates multi-wavelength observations (X-ray, UV, optical, NIR) to explore cosmic structure evolution from the Big Bang onward.
Education: B.S. from Case Western Reserve University (2011), M.S. (2013), and Ph.D. in Astronomy (2016) from Michigan State University under advisor Megan Donahue. His thesis used Hubble Space Telescope, XMM-Newton, and SOAR data to study galaxy clusters.
Research Interests: Distant quasars, early Universe AGN, galaxy cluster evolution, cosmic web interactions, and multi-wavelength observational techniques. Notable work includes detecting X-ray emission from z~6 quasars and breaking redshift records for radio-loud quasars.
Grants & Observatories: Extensive experience with Hubble, Chandra, XMM-Newton, Gemini, Keck, Magellan, and SOAR. Awarded telescope time on these facilities for AGN and cluster studies. Current focus includes JWST and NuSTAR investigations of high-redshift quasars.
Labs/Teams: Active in the Chandra X-ray Center, NuSTAR SOC, Carnegie Observatories, and collaborations like MaDCoWS (Massive and Distant Clusters of WISE Survey). Leads efforts to analyze cosmic structures using cutting-edge instrumentation.
