Dr. Ben Davis Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Galaxy Structure

I live and work in Hawthorn, Victoria (a suburb of Melbourne, Australia) at Swinburne University of Technology. I am a staff member of the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing and an affiliate of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav). Since 2016, I have been working with Professor Alister Graham. My research involves studying the structure of spiral galaxies. To do this, I examine the geometry of spiral arms using a suite of custom software I helped design. I also perform multi-component decompositional analysis of the galaxies to separate them into their constituent components (i.e., bulge, disk, bar, spiral arms, nucleus, etc.). With this detailed knowledge of the galaxy composition and geometry, I can then construct accurate black hole mass scaling relations that can be used to predict the mass of the central massive black hole in galaxies. By conducting a census of black hole demography in galaxies, future studies can better understand the intimate relationship between central black holes and their host galaxies and garner information about their coevolution.

I am also a classically trained musician who regularly performs on the violin or viola with various professional and amateur ensembles. Past positions have involved playing with the Southeast Kansas Symphony Orchestra, the PSU Chamber Orchestra, the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, the University of Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, national Broadway tours of "South Pacific" and "West Side Story," the Arkansas New Music Ensemble, the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra, the Victorian Amateur Chamber Music Society, a soloist with the Yachad Chamber Orchestra, and various ad hoc string quartets and chamber ensembles.