Through the Kaleidoscope: A Dynamic, Panchromatic Look at Supermassive Black Holes

Active galactic nuclei are supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies, that are actively accreting vast quantities of matter and producing enormous energies. They provide unique laboratories for violent physical processes like highly relativistic jets and turbulent accretion flows. A thorough understanding of these objects and their profound effect on galaxy evolution now depends upon synthesizing observations across many wavelengths and understanding their time evolution. In particular, high-resolution radio imaging surveys of outflows and star formation and timing observations with breakthrough instruments like the Kepler and TESS exoplanet-hunting missions have provided new exciting insights. In my talk, I will discuss the my 22 GHz radio survey of jets and outflows from accreting nuclear black holes and implications for galaxy-wide star formation suppression. I will also discuss time domain results in accretion physics and binary black holes from the Kepler and TESS active galaxy samples, and the exciting range of new science expected from upcoming time domain surveys.

Speaker Bio: Dr. Smith grew up in McKinney, just north of the DFW metroplex. She got her bachelor's of science in Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin before moving on to the University of Maryland, where she earned her Masters and PhD in Astronomy jointly under Prof. Richard Mushotzky and as a NASA Earth and Space Sciences Fellow at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She then moved on to an Einstein Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) at Stanford University. In August of 2020, she began her new position as an Assistant Professor of Physics at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, back in her hometown.