WVU Department of Physics and Astronomy Professor and Center Member, Dr. Sarah Burke-Spolaor was named the Benedum Distinguished Scholar in Physical Sciences and Technologies, and will be honored at the upcoming Benedum Distinguished Scholar Showcase.
The Benedum Distinguished Scholar Awards recognize
distinction in research, scholarship or creative activity. Distinction may be reflected
in either a single recent achievement in research, or an extended and still
ongoing career of distinguished research.
Join the Office of the Provost and WVU’s Benedum Distinguished Scholars for an evening of dialogue about research, passion and purpose.
Scheduled for Tuesday, March 11 at 7 p.m., the 2025 Benedum Scholars Showcase will be an in-person event at the Gladys G. Davis Theatre of the WVU Creative Arts Center. A live-streaming option will also be available for virtual viewers on the website.
Styled after James Lipton’s Emmy-award winning series “Inside the Actors Studio,” WVU’s “Inside the Scholars Studio” will highlight short videos of the faculty members who were named as the Benedum Distinguished Scholars last spring, followed by a live panel discussion and Q&A session.
Burke-Spolaor is known nationally and internationally for her groundbreaking work on fast radio bursts (FRBs) and supermassive black hole binaries (SBHBs). SBHBs are the largest, most destructive objects in the universe, but their “darkness” makes it near impossible to find and study them using classic electromagnetic waves (i.e., light from material around black holes). SBHBs are important to find and understand due to their significant role in galaxy evolution and for the unknown, extreme physics that occurs within them.
While the very first detection of gravitational radiation occurred in 2015, a different, longer gravitational wavelength is needed to locate black holes. Burke-Spolaor is a leading member of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), which uses a network of stars called “pulsars” distributed throughout our galaxy to detect small ripples in the fabric of space-time caused by the distant gravitational waves of SBHBs. Burke-Spolaor’s research in the field of low-frequency gravitational-wave astrophysics has laid the foundation for the next generation of progress in pulsar timing array science and is paving the road to find the first SBHB in the near future.
Burke-Spolaor has been recognized for her work with a Jansky Fellowship,
an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and a Canadian Institute for Advanced
Research Azrieli Global Scholarship. She has authored or co-authored 83
refereed publications with over 18,000 citations, and as a principal
investigator or co-investigator has secured over $20 million dollars in
external funding. Burke-Spolaor led the formation of the Gravitational
Wave Astrophysics Working Group within NANOGrav, has given 25 invited
talks since 2018, and is regularly interviewed by leading media outlets
such as the Atlantic, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, and
New York Times.
All are welcome to attend the event.
For more on the Benedum showcase event, please visit: https://provost.wvu.edu/signature-events/benedum-distinguished-scholar-showcase
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