Colin J. Burke

Colin J. Burke is an observational astronomer and NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University's Department of Astronomy. He completed his PhD at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2023 and holds a B.S. in Physics from Purdue University (2018).

Dr. Burke's research focuses on:

• Supermassive black hole formation and evolution
• Intermediate-mass black holes
• AGN accretion physics
• Optical variability of active galactic nuclei
• Machine learning applications in astronomical data analysis

His recent work has established a mass-timescale relation for AGN variability, enabling black hole mass estimation through optical monitoring. This research published in Science (2021) demonstrates how 'flickering' patterns in AGN light provide insights into black hole accretion processes across the entire mass spectrum from stellar to supermassive black holes.

Dr. Burke's scientific achievements include:

• NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship
• Simonyi-NSF Scholar designation
• Illinois Graduate Survey Science Fellowship

As part of his broader impacts, Dr. Burke leads an outreach program exposing local high school students to data science in astronomy. He previously coordinated distribution of 10,000 solar eclipse glasses during the 2017 Great American Solar Eclipse through collaboration with eclipse2017.org and Purdue Astronomy Club.