UC Berkeley Astronomy Department

Eliot Quataert

Professor of Astronomy & Physics

UC Berkeley
Astronomy Department
501 Campbell Hall #3411
Berkeley, CA 94720-3411

Office: 415 Campbell Hall

Research

I am a theoretical astrophysicist with interests in a wide variety of problems, including black holes, stars, plasma astrophysics, and galaxy formation.

I am chair of the Department of Astronomy and director of the Theoretical Astrophysics Center at UC Berkeley.

My publications can be found here (at arxiv.org) or here (at ADS). A list of some of the papers of mine that I like the most.

Curriculum vitae Short Academic Bio

My collaborations include the FIRE galaxy formation simulations, the horizon collaboration on black hole accretion, and the Dedalus project.

Although I greatly enjoy theoretical physics research, I have a confession .... I am not yet a member of this dept

Talks

How Massive Stars Live and Die (KITP Blackboard Lunch Talk)
The Surprisingly Dynamic Last Years in the Lives of Massive Stars   The Physics of Cosmic Rays (a review)
Fueling Black Hole Growth in Galactic Nuclei       The Thermal Stability of Galaxy Cluster Plasmas
Short-Duration Gamma-ray Bursts                          New Forms of Convection in Galaxy Cluster Plasmas
The Heating and Acceleration of the Solar Wind    The FIR-Radio Correlation & Gamma-ray Emission from Star-Forming Galaxies
Gamma-ray Bursts from the Birth of Magnetars Accretion in the Galactic Center

2011 Biermann Lectures (MPA):   The Physics of Galaxy Cluster Plasmas
                                                        Feedback During Galaxy Formation
                                                        Searching for the Electromagnetic Counterparts to Gravitational Wave Sources

Public Talks & Online Courses

Colliding Neutron Stars, Gravitational Waves, and the Origin of the Heavy Elements
What Does a Black Hole Look Like (a talk on the stunning Event Horizon Telescope Results)
Black Holes
The Modern Origins Story: From the Big Bang to Habitable Planets   See the youtube video for a version of this talk.

Group

Postdoctoral: The Theoretical Astrophysics Center at UC Berkeley has several prize postdoctoral fellowships.

Graduate & Undergraduate: I am happy to talk with interested students at any time.

Previous Undergraduate Students: Naveed Ahmad, Keaton Burns, Hannah Klion, Alwin Mao

Current Graduate Students:   Andrea Antoni, Kareem el-Badry, Hannah Klion, Philipp Kempski

Previous graduate students I have worked closely with: Prateek Sharma (IIsc), Mike Boylan-Kolchin (UT Austin), Brian Metzger (Columbia), Linda Strubbe (Science Teaching & Learning Fellow, UBC), Jackson DeBuhr (Univ. Indiana), Josh Shiode (Senior Govt Relations Officer at AAAS), Josh Burkart (Google), Jacob Lynn (Via Analytics), Mike McCourt (Invoca), Josiah Schwab (Hubble Fellow, UCSC), Daniel Lecoanet (Princeton), Drummond Fielding (CCA), Sean Ressler (KITP)

A column by Josh Shiode relevant to my advising style.

UCB Postdocs I am currently collaborating with: Philipp Moesta, Stephen Ro, Yuan Li, Xiangcheng Ma, Ben Margalit

Postdocs I have previously collaborated with: Todd Thompson (OSU), Bryan Johnson (Livermore), Greg Howes (Iowa), Phil Chang (Univ. Wisconsin,
                                                                           Milwaukee), Niccolo Bucciantini (Arcetri), Tony Piro (Carnegie), Prateek Sharma (IIsc),
                                                                           Nevin Weinberg (MIT), Mario Riquelme (Univ. of Chile), Ian Parrish, Phil Hopkins (Caltech),
                                                                           Claude-Andre Faucher-Giguere (Northwestern), Tobi Heinemann (NBIA), Ken Shen (UCB), Ryan O'Leary (Google),
                                                                           Jason Dexter (Boulder), Dusan Keres (UCSD), Geoff Vasil (Sydney), Freeke van de Voort (Heidelberg), Rodrigo
                                                                           Fernandez (Alberta), Robert Feldmann (Zurich), Ann-Marie Madigan (Boulder), Mike Belyaev (Livermore), Francois Foucart (UNH)
                                                                           Chris White (KITP), Sasha Tchekhovskoy (Northwestern), Davide Martizzi (UCSC/Copenhagen), Paul Duffell (CFA), Jing Luan (IAS),
                                                                           Kyle Parfrey (Goddard), Sasha Phlippov (CCA), Richard Anantua (CFA), Eric Coughlin (Columbia)

Teaching

Note: Class websites are now via bcourses. Below are out of date but have some links to readings, web resources, etc.

Astronomy & Integrative Biology C13: From the Big Bang to the Emergence of Humans Online Webcasts Syllabus

Astro 7A: Introduction to Astrophysics Astro 160: Stellar Physics Astro 252: Stellar Structure and Evolution

Astro 202: Astrophysical Gas Dynamics Astro 250: Special Topics in Astrophysics: Accretion Disks

Astro 292: The Formation and Evolution of Massive Black Holes Astro 24: Black Holes: The Science Behind the Science Fiction

Personal

I was born in Santa Monica, California on June 19, 1973, lived for almost 12 years in Houston,Texas, and spent my high school years in Vestal, New York (upstate near the border between NY and PA). I received my B.S. in Physics from MIT in 1995 (carrying out research with Pawan Kumar) and my Ph.D. in Astronomy from Harvard University in 1999 (under the supervision of Ramesh Narayan). I was a postdoc in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study for 2 years before coming to Berkeley in 2001.

When I can find the time, I enjoy nature photography. I also enjoy cooking, hiking, gardening (growing food, that is), and reading.