- Speaker
-
Chiara Mingarelli, Ph.D.Assistant Professor, Physics, Yale University
The 2026 lecture series in physics is “Black Holes.” Through observational breakthroughs and theoretical advances, this series will explore black holes across scale — from stellar remnants to the supermassive giants at the center of galaxies. Topics will include high-resolution imaging, gravitational wave signals, the black hole information paradox and analogs of black holes in fluids on Earth. These lectures will illuminate how black holes offer a window into fundamental physics and provide a lens for understanding the universe’s most extreme environments.
2026 Lecture Series Themes
Biology – Folding the Future: The Structural Biology Revolution
Mathematics and Computer Science – Randomness
Neuroscience and Autism Science – Brain and Body: Communication and Connection
Presidential Lectures are a series of free public colloquia spotlighting groundbreaking research across four themes: neuroscience and autism science, physics, biology, and mathematics and computer science. These curated, high-level scientific talks feature leading scientists and mathematicians and are designed to foster discussion and drive discovery within the New York City research community. We invite those interested in these topics to join us for this weekly lecture series.
At the center of most galaxies lie supermassive black holes. When galaxies merge, these giants eventually find one another and merge, emitting gravitational waves that ripple through space-time. Detecting these waves is key to understanding the universe’s largest black holes, which recent James Webb Space Telescope observations suggest are far more massive than previously thought.
In this Presidential Lecture, Chiara Mingarelli will discuss the hunt for merging supermassive black holes using a galaxy-sized detector that leverages pulsar stars — nature’s most precise cosmic clocks. She will explore how recent evidence of surprisingly massive black holes in the distant universe implies that giant binary black holes should exist in our cosmic neighborhood. She will also explain how she and her colleagues search for the distinct signatures of these systems, distinguishing them from the background “hum” of the universe, and what our current search limits reveal about the history of galaxy growth.
About the Speaker
Mingarelli is an assistant professor of physics at Yale University and a guest researcher at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics. She is a gravitational-wave astrophysicist who leads efforts to detect supermassive black hole binaries using pulsar timing arrays. Mingarelli is a key member of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) collaboration and the International Pulsar Timing Array. Her research focuses on characterizing the nanohertz gravitational wave background and identifying the “fingerprints” of individual binary systems. Recognized for her leadership in the field, she is the recipient of the American Astronomical Society’s 2023 HEAD Early Career Prize and the 2023 Marie Curie Alumni Association Career Award.