WoU-MMA: Bridge, The Next Generation: a postdoctoral fellowship program in multi-messenger astrophysics

A research and education program will build capacity and institutionalize astronomy at Fisk University in the area of multi-messenger astronomy. The program will work within the structure of the current Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’s-to-PhD Bridge Program (FVBP) to incorporate a new postdoctoral fellowship program designed to train future leaders in multi-messenger astronomy and to provide first-hand experience of the inner workings of the Bridge model. As an improvement on the current mentoring structure for students and postdoctoral fellows, the team also proposes to pilot an individualized wellness mentoring program which focuses on the particular early-career needs of groups underrepresented in STEM. During the course of the grant, the new postdoctoral fellows will help establish astronomy courses to be taught on the Fisk campus to help further the goal of institutionalization of astronomy at Fisk. With ample mentoring, team-based research training and non-traditional professional development, these fellows will be well-equipped to become faculty and to implement inclusion programs of their own. Multi-messenger astronomy (MMA) is a relatively new field of research, which involves observational and theoretical studies of astrophysical objects that are sources of detectable electromagnetic radiation, the traditional “messenger” of astronomy, along with either gravitational waves, subatomic particles, or both. MMA is a convergent area of research that requires expertise from data scientists, mathematicians, physicists, engineers, astronomers, and computer scientists, and which, in the context of this work, provides opportunities to form and foster new collaborations among a broad set of domain experts at Fisk and Vanderbilt. MMA is an emerging field whose discovery space is enormous because there is now an entirely new way to gather information from the universe. Over the course of the grant, the team, including the postdoctoral fellows, will specialize in research related to black hole theory, simulations, and observations. With relatively few people trained specifically in multi-messenger astronomy, there is an opportunity for Fisk to become a nexus of expertise in a new field. This award advances the goals of the Windows on the Universe Big Idea. 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.