Neil Cornish

Neil Cornish is a Regents Professor and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics at Montana State University's College of Letters & Science, where he directs research through the eXTreme Gravity Institute (XGI). His work focuses on gravitational wave detection and relativistic astrophysics, with collaborations spanning CalTech, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, and European institutions.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Physics, University of Toronto (1996)
• M.S. in Physics, University of Melbourne (1992)
• B.S. in Physics, University of Melbourne (1990)

Cornish's research explores extreme gravity phenomena including black hole mergers, neutron star binaries, and early-universe cosmology. His 2024 publications demonstrate consistent focus on gravitational wave data analysis techniques, pulsar timing arrays, and multi-messenger astrophysics, with particular emphasis on noise modeling and detection methodologies for LIGO/Virgo observations.

Awards & Honors:

• Outstanding Referee, American Physical Society (2021)
• College of Letters and Science Distinguished Professor (2021)
• Regents Professorship, MUS (2018)
• Springer Physics Highlights (2017)
• Provost’s Award for Graduate Research Mentoring, MSU (2017)

He has advised numerous graduate students including Meg Millhouse and Laura Sampson, and secured major grants from NASA and NSF for LISA gravitational wave research and Bayesian signal reconstruction. Cornish co-leads the eXTreme Gravity Institute, coordinating research across gravitational wave theory, data analysis, and cosmology.