Biography

I am an Associate Professor of Astrophysics at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth, as well as a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History and an Honorary Associate Professor at University College London. In 2013, I received my PhD in Physics and Astronomy from Tel-Aviv University. I then held two postdoctoral research positions at The Johns Hopkins University (2013-2014) and New York University (2014-2016), before moving to the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian as an independent National Science Foundation Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow (2016-2020).

Research interests

I study supernovae - the explosions of stars - as well as other transient astrophysical phenomena. I use observations (images and spectra) obtained with ground- and space-based observatories and large-scale spectroscopic surveys (such as SDSS and DESI). I am specifically interested in uncovering the nature of the progenitors of Type Ia supernovae, studying these supernovae when they are several years old, and conducting population studies of supernovae in general. I am also working on discovering and characterizing tidal disruption events - flares caused by stars that are ripped apart by super-massive black holes - and the galaxies in which they occur.

Research outputs

2024

The MOST Hosts Survey: spectroscopic observation of the host galaxies of ~40,000 transients using DESI

Aguilar, J. N., Ahlen, S., Aldering, G., Andersen, A., Awbrey, A., Benzvi, S. Y., Brooks, D., Brout, D., Claybaugh, T., Davis, T. M., Dawson, K., Dey, A., Dey, B., Doel, P., Douglass, K. A., Forero-Romero, J. E., Gaztanaga, E., Gontcho, S. G. A., Graur, O., Guillou, L. L., Guy, J., Hahn, C., Ho, A. Y. Q., Hohensee, W., Honscheid, K., Howlett, C., Kim, A. G., Kisner, T., Knop, R. A., Kremin, A., Lambert, A., Landriau, M., Lang, D., Macorra, A. d. l., Manera, M., Meisner, A., Miquel, R., Moustakas, J., Myers, A. D., Nie, J., Nugent, P., Palmese, A., Parkinson, D., Poppett, C., Prada, F., Qin, F., Rezaie, M., Rossi, G., Sanchez, E., Schlegel, D. D., Schubnell, M., Silber, J. H., Soumagnac, M. T., Tarle, G., Ventura, M., Weaver, B. A., Zhou, Z.

12 Nov 2024, In: The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 275, 2, 14p., 22

The rate of extreme coronal line emitting galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and their relation to tidal disruption events

Aguilar, J., Ahlen, S., BenZvi, S., Brooks, D., Callow, J., Clark, P., Claybaugh, T., Doel, P., Forero-Romero, J. E., Gaztañaga, E., Gontcho, S. G. A., Graur, O., Lambert, A., Landriau, M., Macorra, A. d. l., Meisner, A., Miquel, R., Moustakas, J., Nie, J., Palmese, A., Poppett, C., Prada, F., Rezaie, M., Rossi, G., Sanchez, E., Silber, J. H., Tarlé, G., Weaver, B. A., Zhou, Z.

5 Nov 2024, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 535, 1, p. 1095-1122

The Dark Energy Survey: Cosmology Results With ~1500 New High-redshift Type Ia Supernovae Using The Full 5-year Dataset

Abbott, T. M. C., Acevedo, M., Aguena, M., Alarcon, A., Allam, S., Alves, O., Amon, A., Andrade-Oliveira, F., Annis, J., Armstrong, P., Asorey, J., Avila, S., Bacon, D., Bassett, B., Bechtol, K., Bernardinelli, P. H., Bernstein, G. M., Bertin, E., Blazek, J., Bocquet, S., Brooks, D., Brout, D., Buckley-Geer, E., Burke, D. L., Camacho, H., Camilleri, R., Campos, A., Carollo, D., Carr, A., Carretero, J., Castander, F. J., Cawthon, R., Chang, C., Chen, R., Choi, A., Collaboration, T. D. E. S., Conselice, C., Costa, L. N. d., Costanzi, M., Crocce, M., Frohmaier, C., Gaztanaga, E., Graur, O., Kelsey, L., Li, T. S., Nichol, R. C., Percival, W. J., Rosell, A. C., Thomas, D., Vincenzi, M.

1 Oct 2024, In: Astrophysical Journal Letters. 973, 1, 20p., L14

Kilonova Seekers: the GOTO project for real-time citizen science in time-domain astrophysics

Ackley, K., Awiphan, S., Belkin, S., Breton, R. P., Chote, P., Clark, P., Coppejans, D., Dhillon, V. S., Duffy, C., Dyer, M. J., Eyles-Ferris, R., Galloway, D. K., Godson, B., Gompertz, B., Graur, O., Irawati, P., Jarvis, D., Jiménez-Ibarra, F., Julakanti, Y., Kelsey, L., Kennedy, M. R., Killestein, T. L., Kotak, R., Krawczyk, C., Kumar, A., Kuncarayakti, H., Levan, A., Littlefair, S., Lyman, J., Magee, M., Mandhai, S., Mattila, S., McCormac, J., Mullaney, J., Munday, J., Noysena, K., Nuttall, L., O'Brien, P., O'Neill, D., Pallé, E., Patel, M., Pollacco, D., Pursiainen, M., Ramsay, G., Rana, J., Sawangwit, U., Stanway, E., Starling, R., Steeghs, D., Sánchez, D. M., Ulaczyk, K., Warwick, B., Wickens, E., Wiersema, K.

1 Sep 2024, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 533, 2, p. 2113-2132

The best books for budding astronomers of all ages

Graur, O.

12 Aug 2024, In: Shepherd

The Early Data Release of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument

Adame, A. G., Aguilar, J., Ahlen, S., Alam, S., Aldering, G., Alexander, D. M., Alfarsy, R., Alvarez, M., Alves, O., Anand, A., Andrade-Oliveira, F., Armengaud, E., Asorey, J., Avila, S., Aviles, A., Balaguera-Antolínez, A., Ballester, O., Baltay, C., Bault, A., Bautista, J., Behera, J., Beltran, S. F., BenZvi, S., Bermejo-Climent, J. R., Berti, A., Besuner, R., Beutler, F., Bianchi, D., Blake, C., Blum, R., Canning, R., Gil-Marín, H., Gonzalez-Perez, V., Graur, O., Howlett, C., Manera, M., Mueller, E., Nadathur, S., Percival, W. J., Pieri, M., Prieto, C. A., Ross, A. J., Ruggeri, R., Sabiu, C. G., Samushia, L., Silva, L. B. e., Tojeiro, R., Wang, M. S.

1 Aug 2024, In: The Astronomical Journal. 168, 2, 33p., 58

The myths and lore of the Milky Way

Graur, O.

1 Aug 2024, In: The MIT Press Reader

Light-curve Structure and Hα Line Formation in the Tidal Disruption Event AT 2019azh

Abojanb, W., Anderson, J. P., Arcavi, I., Bostroem, K. A., Brink, T. G., Charalampopoulos, P., Clark, P., Farah, J., Faris, S., Filippenko, A. V., French, K. D., Galbany, L., Gonzalez, E. P., Graur, O., Gromadzki, M., Gutierrez, C. P., Heikkila, T., Hiramatsu, D., Howell, D. A., Inserra, C., Johansson, J., Kankare, E., Lam, M. C., Leloudas, G., Makrygianni, L., Mattila, S., McCully, C., Newsome, M., Nicholl, M., Onori, F., Pellegrino, C., Reynolds, T., Terreran, G., Tomasella, L., Wang, Y., Wevers, T.

10 Jul 2024, In: The Astrophysical Journal. 969, 2, 24p., 104

Underluminous 1991bg-like Type Ia supernovae are standardizable candles

Graur, O.

1 Jun 2024, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 530, 4, p. 4950-4960

View all my research outputs