New Schwarzschild Fellow investigates supermassive black holes
Meredith Powell.
Credit: AIPThe Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) welcomes Dr. Meredith Powell as a new Karl Schwarzschild Fellow. She received her PhD at Yale University and studies the galactic and extragalactic environments of accreting supermassive black holes, which are observed as active galactic nuclei (AGN), to test current models of black hole fuelling and feedback.
Before coming to AIP, Meredith Powell was a Porat Fellow at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. Prior to her PhD at Yale she studied physics at the University of California Davis. She initially joins the Galaxies and Quasars research section of the AIP, which is headed by Professor Lutz Wisotzki.
“My research investigates how supermassive black holes grow alongside their galaxies and larger-scale dark matter environments. By measuring and modeling the clustering of AGN for several new, large AIP-led surveys, I will characterize how AGN activity depends on environment over cosmic time. This will provide clues for the physical processes that trigger and quench black hole growth”, states Meredith Powell.
The Karl Schwarzschild Fellowship is awarded by the AIP in honour of the former director of the Astrophysical Observatory Potsdam (AOP), Karl Schwarzschild (1873-1916). The program commemorates Schwarzschild's scientific achievements in astrophysics, particularly in the fields of optics, stellar physics, stellar activity, and general relativity. Fellows are selected through an international competition.
Further information
Meredith Powell.
Credit: AIPThe Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) welcomes Dr. Meredith Powell as a new Karl Schwarzschild Fellow. She received her PhD at Yale University and studies the galactic and extragalactic environments of accreting supermassive black holes, which are observed as active galactic nuclei (AGN), to test current models of black hole fuelling and feedback.
Before coming to AIP, Meredith Powell was a Porat Fellow at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. Prior to her PhD at Yale she studied physics at the University of California Davis. She initially joins the Galaxies and Quasars research section of the AIP, which is headed by Professor Lutz Wisotzki.
“My research investigates how supermassive black holes grow alongside their galaxies and larger-scale dark matter environments. By measuring and modeling the clustering of AGN for several new, large AIP-led surveys, I will characterize how AGN activity depends on environment over cosmic time. This will provide clues for the physical processes that trigger and quench black hole growth”, states Meredith Powell.
The Karl Schwarzschild Fellowship is awarded by the AIP in honour of the former director of the Astrophysical Observatory Potsdam (AOP), Karl Schwarzschild (1873-1916). The program commemorates Schwarzschild's scientific achievements in astrophysics, particularly in the fields of optics, stellar physics, stellar activity, and general relativity. Fellows are selected through an international competition.
Further information
Images
Meredith Powell.
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The spatial distributions of X-ray-selected AGN from the Swift/Bat Spectroscopic Survey (blue) and low-redshift galaxies (black), which trace the underlying large-scale structure. These distributions provide information on the connection between growing supermassive black holes and their host dark matter halos.
