W. Niel Brandt

Eberly Family Chair Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Professor of Physics
Niel Brandt.
W. Niel
Brandt
Eberly Family Chair Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Professor of Physics
Department Affiliations
Interests
Supermassive Black Holes
Active Galactic Nuclei
Cosmic Surveys
Galaxy Evolution
Transient Sources
High-Energy Astrophysics
Address
Phone
814-865-3509
Website
Personal Site

Honors and Awards

  • American Astronomical Society Fellowship, 2020
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellowship, 2019
  • NASA Group Achievement Award to the NuSTAR Extragalactic Survey Team, 2017
  • Bruno Rossi Prize of the High-Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society, 2016
  • NASA Group Achievement Award to the NuSTAR Science Team, 2014
  • American Physical Society Fellowship, 2009
  • Newton Lacy Pierce Prize of the American Astronomical Society, 2004
  • NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, 2000-2007
  • Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, 1999-2004

 

Education and Training

  • Smithsonian Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, September 1996-August 1997
  • Ph.D., Astronomy, King's College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, 1996
  • B.S., Honors, Physics, Blacker Hovse, California Institute of Technology, 1992

 

Primary Research Interests

  • Deep cosmic multiwavelength surveys
  • The growth of supermassive black holes over cosmic time
  • Black-hole vs. galaxy connections
  • Supermassive black-hole winds and feedback into galaxies
  • Sample-based studies of active galactic nuclei
  • Extreme active galactic nuclei as tools
  • X-ray astronomy and high-energy astrophysics

 

Brief Research Statement

My research focuses on observational studies of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and cosmic surveys. Specific objects investigated include actively accreting SMBHs (i.e., active galactic nuclei: AGNs), dormant SMBHs, starburst and normal galaxies, and transients. Observations utilized are from facilities at the forefront of astrophysical discovery, including the Chandra, XMM-Newton, and NuSTAR satellites and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. I soon plan to work on data from new X-ray missions, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, and the MOONS spectrograph on the VLT. Ultimately, my research aims to understand the physics, demographics, and ecology of SMBHs across all of cosmic time.

Please see my research YouTube recordings, my active galaxies YouTube recordings, and my personal website for more information.

 

Teaching

  • Astro 001: Astronomical Universe
  • Astro 130: Black Holes in the Universe
  • Astro 485: Introduction to High-Energy Astronomy
  • Astro 550: High-Energy Astrophysics
  • Astro 589: An Observational Overview of Active Galactic Nuclei
  • High School Teacher Workshops on Black Holes, Cosmology, Stellar Astronomy, and Telescopes and Astronomical Data

 

Selected Recent Publications

Additional publications can be found on my Google Scholar page. 

 

"The LX-LUV-Lradio relation and corona-disk-jet connection in optically selected radio-loud quasars", Zhu S.F., Brandt W.N., Luo B., Wu J., Xue Y., Yang G., 2020, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 496, 245-268 (arXiv:2006.13226 [astro-ph])

"Revealing the relation between black-hole growth and host-galaxy compactness among star-forming galaxies", Ni Q., Brandt W.N., Yang G., Leja J., Chen C.-T.J., Luo B., Matharu J., Sun M., Vito F., Xue Y.Q., Zhang K., 2021, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 500, 4989-5008 (arXiv:2007.04987 [astro-ph])

"The X-ray spectral and variability properties of typical radio-loud quasars", Zhu S., Timlin J.D., Brandt W.N., 2021, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 505, 1954-1971 (arXiv:2105.06478 [astro-ph])

"The XMM-SERVS survey: XMM-Newton point-source catalogs for the W-CDF-S and ELAIS-S1 fields", Ni Q., Brandt W.N., Chen C.-T., Luo B., Nyland K., Yang G., Zou F., Aird J., Alexander D.M., Bauer F.E., Lacy M., Lehmer B.D., Mallick L., Salvato M., Schneider D.P., Tozzi P., Traulsen I., Vaccari M., Vignali C., Vito F., Xue Y., Banerji M., Chow K., Comastri A., Del Moro A., Gilli R., Mullaney J., Paolillo M., Schwope A., Shemmer O., Sun M., Timlin J.D., Trump J.R., 2021, The Astrophysical Journal Supplement, 256, #21 (34 pages) (arXiv:2106.10572 [astro-ph])

"Surveys of the cosmic X-ray background", Brandt W.N., Yang G., 2022, in Bambi C., Santangelo A., eds, Handbook of X-ray and Gamma-ray Astrophysics. Springer, Singapore. (35 pages) (arXiv:2111.01156 [astro-ph])

"Sensitive Chandra coverage of a representative sample of weak-line quasars: Revealing the full range of X-ray properties", Ni Q., Brandt W.N., Luo B., Garmire G.P., Hall P.B., Plotkin R.M., Shemmer O., Timlin J.D., Vito F., Wu J., Yi W., 2022, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 511, 5251-5264 (arXiv:2202.05279 [astro-ph])

"Spectral energy distributions in three Deep-Drilling Fields of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time: Source classification and galaxy properties", Zou F., Brandt W.N., Chen C.-T., Leja J., Ni Q., Yan W., Yang G., Zhu S., Luo B., Nyland K., Vito F., Xue Y., 2022, The Astrophysical Journal Supplement, 262, #15 (41 pages) (arXiv:2206.06432 [astro-ph])

"Does the lockstep growth between black holes and bulges create their mass relation?", Yang G., Brandt W.N., Alexander D.M., Boquien M., Ni Q., Papovich C., Spilker J.S., Vito F., Walsh J.L., Zhang C., 2022, The Astrophysical Journal, 940, #146 (13 pages)

"Radio AGN selection and characterization in three Deep-Drilling Fields of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time", Zhu S.F., Brandt W.N., Zou F., Luo B., Ni Q., Xue Y., Yan W., 2023, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 522, 3506-3528

"Mapping the growth of supermassive black holes as a function of galaxy stellar mass and redshift", Zou F., Yu Z., Brandt W.N., Tak H., Yang G., Ni Q., 2024, The Astrophysical Journal, 964, #183 (22 pages) (arXiv:2404.00097 [astro-ph])

"The X-ray enhancements of radio-loud quasars at high redshift: New results at z = 4-7", Zuo Z., Zhu S., Brandt W.N., Garmire G.P., Vito F., Wu J., Xue Y., 2024, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 530, 360-381 (arXiv:2402.17828 [astro-ph])

"Fast supermassive black hole growth in the SPT2349-56 protocluster at z = 4.3", Vito F., Brandt W.N., Comastri A., Gilli R., Ivison R.J., Lanzuisi G., Lehmer B.D., Lopez I.E., Tozzi P., Vignali C., 2024, Astronomy and Astrophysics, 689, A130 (16 pages) (arXiv:2406.13005 [astro-ph])

"The remarkable X-ray spectra and variability of the ultraluminous weak-line quasar SDSS J1521+5202", Wang S., Brandt W.N., Luo B., Yu Z., Zou F., Huang J., Ni Q., Vito F., 2024, The Astrophysical Journal, 974, #2 (8 pages) (arXiv:2408.16060 [astro-ph])

"The cosmic evolution of the supermassive black hole population: A hybrid observed accretion and simulated mergers approach", Zou F., Brandt W.N., Gallo E., Luo B., Ni Q., Xue Y., Yu Z.,
2024, The Astrophysical Journal, 976, #6 (23 pages) (arXiv:2409.16364 [astro-ph])

"Dust-obscured galaxies in the XMM-SERVS fields: Selection, multiwavelength characterization, and physical nature", Yu Z., Brandt W.N., Zou F., Zhu Z., Bauer F.E., Cristello N., Luo B., Ni Q., Vito F., Xue Y., 2024, The Astrophysical Journal, 977, #210 (25 pages) (arXiv:2410.18190 [astro-ph])

"Investigating the star-formation characteristics of radio active galactic nuclei", Zhang B., Zou F., Brandt W.N., Zhu S., Cristello N., Ni Q., Xue Y., Yu Z., 2025, The Astrophysical Journal, 978, #9 (18 pages) (arXiv:2411.15314 [astro-ph])