MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: DUSTY MADISON

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

I’m Dusty Madison and I do astrophysics research. More specifically, I study gravitational waves. Gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes were first detected by the LIGO collaboration in 2015, one hundred years after they were predicted by Einstein. You can think of LIGO as doing high-frequency gravitational wave astronomy. Most of my research has been on much lower frequency gravitational waves. My collaboration, NANOGrav, hopes to detect these low-frequency gravitational waves by observing how they affect the behavior of these exotic stars called millisecond pulsars. Studying these pulsars makes our work a big endeavor in radio astronomy. We use the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia extensively, and until recently, used the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico. We think we’re getting close and may actually detect this new type of gravitational wave in the next year or two.

What do you love most about the work?

I’ve been fascinated with space since I was a little kid. When I was in undergrad, I took a class on Einstein’s theory of gravity and learned about gravitational waves for the first time. I thought they were super cool, and it sounded like something that was going to be exciting over the next decade and more. I was right about that. It’s been an exciting field to be involved with. In practice, I appreciate the creativity that’s involved with innovative new research. My work has given me the opportunity to travel to some great places all over the world. I regularly get to meet and work with some very impressive people.

How did you arrive at this place? What’s your backstory?

I’m from California originally but moved to Ithaca, NY for graduate school in 2008. I moved to Charlottesville in 2015 right after I finished my PhD to work for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. In 2018, after my NRAO contract expired, I moved to Morgantown, WV to continue doing research at West Virginia University. My wife has a good job here in Charlottesville, so she stayed here and we did long distance for about two years. But when COVID kicked in, there was no reason for me to physically be in Morgantown anymore, so I moved back here.

Was there a light switch moment? A turning point for you?

Weirdly enough, I’m going to say “no.” I’d have to go way back and talk about some stuff from my childhood or something when I really fell in love with space and science. Outside of that, I’ve been on a pretty steady trajectory since I took my first physics class my junior year of high school and fell in love with it. I’ve managed to keep this scientist thing going which is a privilege and a joy.

Could you share a memorable story?

I attended a conference in Sydney, Australia a few years ago. I had a great dinner with my PhD advisor, Jim, and one of his former students, Joe, who’s now a big shot at NASA. It was out on a patio right on the harbor, right underneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The Sydney waterfront is spectacular.

What are you currently working on?

My current project is actually some of the most niche, technical, inside-baseball stuff I’ve ever worked on and I really don’t have a great elevator pitch for it at the moment. I’m developing a more general version of this very specific computation that my collaboration regularly does when we're looking for something called “the stochastic background of gravitational waves."

How do you see your work evolving?

I’ve recently been hired as an associate professor in the Department of Physics at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. I’m going to be teaching undergraduate students and working to involve them in my research on gravitational waves and pulsars. It’s a tenure track position, so the hope is that this job will become permanent within a few years. We’ll likely be living in the greater Sacramento area.

How has your experience at Studio IX been?

It’s been great. Sometimes I just need a change of scenery to get my workflow going again because I get sick of working from my couch at home. The space is very comfortable and pleasant to be in. I think COVID precautions have been handled really well. It’s nice interacting with the friendly staff a few times a week.