Hi, I am John Veitch, an astrophysicist based at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. I work in the Institute for Gravitational Research, on gravitational wave astronomy with Advanced LIGO and other projects to to observe gravitational waves. I am also a Senior Lecturer and teach several astronomy courses, and supervise many students.
My research interests are mostly in the collision of black holes and neutron stars. Along with the team at the IGR and in the broader LIGO Scientific Collaboration, I analyse the tiny distortions of spacetime produced by these collisions happening millions of light-years away. We can determine what kind of objects produced these gravitational waves, and from that we can learn about the astrophysics of black holes and neutron stars.
I’ve been working in this field for nearly two decades, during which time it has completely transformed from being an ambitious physics experiment to a revolutionary new type of astronomy. I’ve been at the forefront of the use of Bayesian inference on gravitational wave signals since their first detection in 2015. I am fascinated by the challenge of extracting as much information as possible from the tiny gravitational wave signals, and the techniques that emerge at the meeting point of physics, astronomy and computing science.
A native Glaswegian, I got my PhD at Glasgow in 2007, and have since worked in Birmingham, Cardiff and Amsterdam, before returning to Glasgow in 2017 as a lecturer / research fellow. I’ve given many talks to both academic and public audiences at levels from primary school to pensioners. If you would like to hear me speak about gravitational wave astronomy feel free to get in touch via my contact page.