MPS-Ascend: Identifying the Fingerprints of Gravitational Wave Source Formation

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This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Alexandria Tucker is awarded an NSF Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to conduct a program of research and activities related to broadening participation by groups underrepresented in STEM at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This fellowship to Dr. Tucker supports her research project entitled "MPS-Ascend: Identifying the Fingerprints of Gravitational Wave Source Formation", under the mentorship of a sponsoring scientist. The host institution for the fellowship is the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Nicolas Yunes.Tucker will formulate a probability distribution of the orbital eccentricity of binaries as they enter the sensitivity band of ground-based detectors and create generic gravitational-wave models that include spin-precession and orbital eccentricity. Along with the research, Tucker has planned four outreach activities, all of which are aimed at educating and increasing the interest of the general public about extreme gravity, with an eye toward diversity and under-represented minorities. These include a survey of the climate for women and members of underrepresented groups, an outreach event aimed at changing scientific attitudes in Latin American elementary school students in the local Champaign-Urbana area, the creation of artwork to promote the diversity of ethnicities and genders in science and enhancing a gravitational physics virtual relativity simulation through artwork that combines scientific accuracy with aesthetics.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.