Michael Kesden

Michael Kesden is a Professor of Physics at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), affiliated with the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. He holds a B.A. and Certificate from Princeton University (2000) and a Ph.D. in Physics from the California Institute of Technology (2005). His research focuses on astrophysical phenomena involving black holes, including binary-black-hole mergers and tidal disruption events, leveraging tools like numerical relativity and general relativistic models. Kesden has received prestigious awards such as the Sloan Research Fellowship (2015) and the Outstanding Referee Award from the American Physical Society (2019). His work bridges theoretical physics with observational astrophysics, contributing to gravitational wave astronomy and relativistic astrophysics.

Research Interests:

• Binary-Black-Hole Mergers: Predicting merger rates, calculating gravitational wave signatures, and electromagnetic emissions using post-Newtonian expansions and numerical relativity.
• Tidal Disruption Events: Modeling relativistic effects on light curves and debris accretion in supermassive black hole encounters with stars.

His publications span topics like orbital inclination distributions in tidal disruptions, detectability of lensed gravitational waves, and spin dynamics in black hole binaries. Kesden has led NSF-funded projects on physics education and collaborative STEM initiatives, including the Scaffolded Training Environment for Physics Programming (STEPP).

Affiliations include the American Physical Society (Division of Astrophysics), American Astronomical Society, and Sigma Xi. His funding includes grants from NSF, NASA, and the Sloan Foundation, totaling over $1.7 million in research support.