Dan Wilkins

Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics & Cosmology
Stanford University

I am a research scientist, astronomer and astrophysicist in the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University. My research focuses on how material spiralling into a supermassive black hole in the centre of a galaxy is able to release huge amounts of energy, powering some of the brightest objects we see in the Universe.

My research bridges the divide between observational and theoretical studies of black holes, using state of the art space telescopes, developing novel data analysis techniques and designing computer simulations of how light travels around black holes. I am using the X-rays that are emitted and measurements of how they reflect off of the material in its final moments before it falls in to create a 3D map of the extreme environment just outside the event horizon. I am interested in what happens to material and light just before it is lost into the black hole, how the corona that produces the radiation we see is powered, and how black holes are able to launch jets at almost the speed of light.

Opportunities

  • Incoming Stanford graduate students: we have rotation projects available on both observational and theoretical aspects of black hole astrophysics and active galactic nuclei (AGN), in addition to projects in other aspects of X-ray astronomy, including galaxy cluster astrophysics, cluster cosmology and X-ray instrumentation (see the XOC Group for more information).

  • Stanford Physics undergraduates: for students majoring in physics, we have opportunities for research projects related to black hole astrophysics during the fall, winter and spring quarters, which can be taken for course credits under Physics 190.

Latest news

  • SPIE Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation 2024 - augmenting astronomical X-ray detectors with AI for enhanced sensitivity and reduced background (13093-65) - paper

  • Cunard Insights Programme - details about my lectures and other public talks I have given are available here.

  • Discovery of X-ray echoes from behind a black hole, published in Nature (Press Release, ESA Image Release)

  • Measurements of how the corona (which produces the intense X-ray emission just outside a supermassive black hole) cools as it is accelerated away from the black hole during X-ray flares, published in MNRAS.

  • New X-ray spectral-timing methods based on wavelets to measure the variation of X-ray reverberation signals from the inner accretion disc, and transform the static picture of the extreme environment outside a black hole into a movie, published in MNRAS.

  • X-Vision 2023 IAU I-HOW and COSPAR Capacity Building Workshop - lectures

I was awarded my Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 2013, working with Prof. Andy Fabian in the X-ray group of the Institute of Astronomy. I received my Masters degree in Natural Sciences (Experimental and Theoretical Physics), also from the University of Cambridge (Jesus College), in 2009.

I am passionate about communicating science to the general public. I have given a number of talks to public audiences as well as to students in local schools, youth groups and others about astronomy and physics. I am the host and co-ordinator for KIPAC’s Discover Our Universe lecture series at Stanford University. I also run stargazing evenings and have given tours and demonstrations of both modern and historical telescopes.

I give astronomy lectures as part of the Cunard Insights programme, usually on board Queen Mary 2, as well as giving live planetarium shows on board (in the largest planetarium at sea) and hosting stargazing evenings on the decks.

I spend a lot of my spare time rowing, am one of the chief umpires for the Cambridge University Bumps races.