Geoffrey Mo

Geoffrey Mo studies compact stellar binaries, which produce exotic astrophysical objects, play crucial roles in stellar evolution, and are responsible for many of the most energetic events in the universe. During his Ph.D. at MIT in the LIGO Lab, he enabled multimessenger observations of these sources in both electromagnetic and gravitational waves. As a Carnegie-Caltech Brinson Postdoctoral Fellow, he will work to answer critical questions about the formation and evolution of compact binaries using time-domain observations of gravitational wave sources. In particular, he will use the Hubble Space Telescope in conjunction with ground-based observatories to characterize the compact binary population of globular clusters, which have dense cores which are predicted to be prolific factories of compact binaries. He will also look to improve the capabilities of powerful ground-based telescopes—particularly for studying compact binaries—by developing new multi-band imagers that take advantage of recent advances in image sensor technology to enable low-noise, high-speed characterization of these binary systems.