Charles R. Evans

Charles R. Evans is the Agnew H. Bahnson, Jr. Professor of Physics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin (1984) and a B.A. from Vanderbilt University (1976). His research focuses on gravitational physics, relativistic astrophysics, and numerical relativity, with particular emphasis on gravitational waves, black hole dynamics, and extreme-mass-ratio inspirals. Evans has served as Associate Department Chair (2006-2009, 2012-2017), Director of Graduate Studies (2006-2009), and Visiting Full Professor at University College Dublin (2023-2028). He has advised numerous PhD students who now hold positions at institutions like MIT, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Cardiff University.

Evans' awards include Fellow of the American Physical Society (2017), Agnew H. Bahnson Jr. Distinguished Professor (2015), and the Presidential Young Investigator Award (1990). His work spans computational fluid dynamics, magnetohydrodynamics, and the theoretical modeling of stellar tidal disruptions by massive black holes. Key contributions include pioneering constrained transport methods for magnetohydrodynamic simulations and foundational studies in critical phenomena during gravitational collapse.

His recent publications explore post-Newtonian expansions for eccentric-orbit systems, self-force effects in extreme-mass-ratio binaries, and relativistic tidal interactions. Collaborations include projects at the Max Planck Institute and NASA, with ongoing research into gravitational wave physics and numerical relativity.