Tim Johannsen

Research Interests

I am a CITA National Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Waterloo and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. I am associated with the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Toronto.

My research expertise lies in the areas of theoretical astrophysics, gravitation, and black holes. I study the nature of these compact objects, their environment, and their implications for fundamental theories such as general relativity and string theory. I design observational tests of general relativity in the strong-field regime and predict new observational signatures of black holes across the electromagnetic spectrum. My work involves a variety of both analytical and computational methods.

I am part of the science team of the Event Horizon Telescope, a planned global array of radio telescopes with the goal to take the first ever image of a black hole and to test Einstein"s theory of general relativity. I am also part of the strong gravity science team of the Large Observatory For x-ray Timing (LOFT), one of five proposed observatories to be selected as the next M3 class mission of ESA"s Cosmic Vision Program. LOFT will perform phase-resolved spectroscopy of galactic black holes on event horizon timescales and probe the equation of state of neutron stars. I also work with the results of current X-ray observatories such as the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, Chandra, and XMM-Newton, and I simulate measurements of future X-ray missions such as Astro-H and ATHENA-like missions.