Dr. Kendall Ackley

University of Warwick · UK · Gravitational Wave Astrophysicist ·

I am a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Physics as the University of Warwick

I received my PhD from the University of Florida in 2017 with the title "A realistic end-to-end analysis: An optimized procedure for finding elusive electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave events" under joint supervision of Prof. Stephen S. Eikenberry and Prof. Sergey Klimenko. Since then I have previously worked with the GOTO observatory and with The ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) on electro-magnetic follow-up of gravitational-wave events in Melbourne, Australia.

I am now currently employed at the University of Warwick continuing my efforts with GOTO in preparation for the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA O4 run.

Experience

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Department of Physics | University of Warwick | GOTO
May 2021 - Present

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

School of Physics & Astronomy | Monash University | OzGrav | GOTO
Sept 2017 - May 2021

Graduate Research Assistant

Department of Physics and Department of Astronomy | University of Florida

Supervisors: Prof. Stephen S. Eikenberry, Prof. Sergey Klimenko

2014 - 2017

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Department of Physics | University of Florida

Fall 2014: PHY2054: Physics 2 without Calculus
Fall 2011 -- Fall 2013: PHY2049L: Physics 2 with Calculus Laboratory

2011 - 2014

International Research Experience for Undergraduates (IREU)

Albert Einstein Institute, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics

Mentors: Prof. Gerhard Heinzel, Juan José Esteban Delgado
Project: "Ranging Implementation: Signal Processing Development"

Summer 2009

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Department of Physics | University of Florida

LISA Laboratory: Prof. Guido Mueller

2009-2011

Education

PhD in Physics

University of Florida
Title "A realistic end-to-end analysis: An optimized procedure for finding elusive
electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave events"
Supervisors: Prof. Stephen S. Eikenberry, Prof. Sergey Klimenko
August 2011 - May 2017

Master of Science in Physics

University of Florida
2014

Bachelor of Science in Physics

University of Florida
August 2007 - May 2011

Research Interests

  • » Electromagnetic follow-up of gravitational-wave events detected with LIGO-Virgo.
  • » The physics, progenitors, and host galaxies of gamma-ray bursts.
  • » Short-duration gamma-ray bursts as sources of gravitational wave radiation
  • » The classification, physics, and progenitors of fast optical transients
  • » General time-domain astrophysics: contamination in optical surveys, survey design and optimization, rapid timescale transients.
  • » Large-scale astronomy image processing and pipeline development for surveys.
  • » Bayesian inference methods for joint analyses of gravitational-wave and electromagnetic information


Selected Publications

A list of my full publications can be found at OrcID, ADS, Google Scholar

A selection of my publications are listed below:

16. Current observations are insufficient to confidently associate the binary black hole merger GW190521 with AGN J124942.3+344929
Ashton, G., Ackley, K. ; Magaña Hernandez, I. ; Piotrzkowski, B. (2020). Accepted CQG. eprint arXiv:2009.12346 15. Neutron Star Extreme Matter Observatory: A kilohertz-band gravitational-wave detector in the global network
Ackley, K. , Adya, V. B., Agrawal, P., et al. (2020). PASA. eprint arXiv:2007.03128 14. Enhancing Gravitational-Wave Science with Machine Learning
Cuoco, E., Powell, J., Cavaglià, M., Ackley, K., et al. (2020). Machine Learning Science and Technology. eprint arXiv:2005.03745 13. An extremely bright QSO at z = 2.89
Jeram, S., Gonzalez, A., Eikenberry, S.S., Stern, D., Mendes de Oliveira, C.L., Izuti Nakazono, L.M., Ackley, K. (2020). The Astrophysical Journal, 889, 76. 12. Searching for electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational-wave merger events with the prototype Gravitational-Wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO-4)
Gompertz, B.P., Cutter, R., Steeghs, D., Galloway, D.K., Lyman, J., Ulaczyk, K., Dyer, M.J., Ackley, K., et al. (2020). MNRAS, 497. 11. A rapidly varying red supergiant X-ray binary in the galactic center
Gottlieb, A.M., Eikenberry, S.S., Ackley, K., DeWitt, C., Marco, A. (2020). The Astrophysical Journal, 896, 32. 10. Observational constraints on the optical and near-infrared emission from the neutron star-black hole binary merger S190814bv
Ackley, K., Amati, L., Barbieri, C., et al. (ENGRAVE) (2020). A&A eprint:arXiv:2002.01950 9. The afterglow and kilonova of the short GRB 160821B
Troja, E., Castro-Tirado, A. J., Becerra González, J., Hu, Y., Ryan, G. S., Cenko, S. B., Ricci, R., Novara, G., Sánchez-Rámirez, R., Acosta-Pulido, J. A., Ackley, K., et al. (2019). MNRAS, 489. 8. Automated Transient Detection with Shapelet Analysis in Image-subtracted Data
Ackley, K., Eikenberry, S.S., Yildirim, C., Klimenko, S., Garner, A. 2019. Astronomical Journal, 158, 5. 7. Joint gravitational wave - gamma-ray burst detection rates in the aftermath of GW170817
Howell, E. J., Ackley, K., Rowlinson, A., Coward, D. (2019). MNRAS, 485, 1. 6. BILBY: A User-friendly Bayesian Inference Library for Gravitational-wave Astronomy
Ashton, G., Hübner, M., Lasky, P. D., Talbot, C., Ackley, K., Biscoveanu, S.,Goncharov, B., et al. (2019). Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 241, 27. 5. CIRCE: The Canarias InfraRed Camera Experiment for the Gran Telescopio Canarias.
Eikenberry, S. S., Charcos, M., Edwards, M. L., Garner, A., Lasso-Cabrera, N., Stelter, R. D., Bennett, J. G., et al. (2018). Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation, 7(01), 1850002. 4. A precise measurement of the magnetic field in the corona of the black hole binary V404 Cygni
Dallilar, Y., Eikenberry, S.S., Garner, A., Stelter, D., Gottlieb, A., Gandhi, P.,Littlefair, S., et al. (2018). Science, 360(6386). 3. Follow Up of GW170817 and Its Electromagnetic Counterpart by Australian-Led Observing Programmes
Andreoni, I., Ackley, K., Cooke, J., Acharyya, A., Allison, J., Anderson, G.,Bannister, K., et al. (2017). Follow up of GW170817 and its electromagnetic counterpart by Australian-led observing programmes. PASA, 34. 2. Method for detection and reconstruction of gravitational wave transients with networks of advanced detectors.
Klimenko, S., Vedovato, G., Drago, M., Salemi, F., Tiwari, V., Prodi, G., Lazzaro, C., Ackley, K., et al. (2016). Physical Review D, 93(4), 042004. 1. Miradas for the Gran Telescopio Canarias
Eikenberry, S. S., Raines, S. N., Stelter, R. D., Garner, A., Dallilar, Y., Ackley, K., Tooke, D., et al. (2016) Paper presented at the Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII.

Collaborations

Contact

Feel free to contact me via email -->

kendall DOT ackley AT warwick DOT ac DOT uk