Ryan O'Leary



Contact Information


University of California, Berkeley
B-20 Hearst Field Annex #3411
Berkeley, CA 94706

Email: oleary atatatat berkeley.edu
WWW: http://astro.berkeley.edu/~oleary/


Education


Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2005-2010 Ph.D. in Astronomy,
Thesis Topic: Dynamics of Black Holes and Dark Matter in Galactic Nuclei
Advisor: Professor Abraham Loeb
A.M., Astronomy, June 2007

Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 2001-2005
B.A., Mathematics and Physics & Astronomy with Honors, June 2005
Summa Cum Laude - Top 3 per cent of graduating class
Honors Thesis Advisor: Professor Frederic Rasio

Research Interests


Theoretical Astrophysics and Cosmology: black hole physics and dynamics -- gravitational wave sources -- properties of dark matter and dark energy -- stellar and planetary tides -- first stars -- 21 cm cosmology

Research Experience


Einstein Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2010-present
University of California, Berkeley

Theoretical Astrophysics Center Fellowship (2013-2014)
University of California, Berkeley

Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2005-2010
Advisor: Professor Abraham Loeb

Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 2003-2008
Advisor: Professor Frederic Rasio

University of Zurich through ETHZ, Zurich, Switzerland 2004
Advisor: Professor Ben Moore


Teaching Experience


Teaching Fellow, Science A-35, Harvard University Spring 2010
Teaching Fellow, Science A-35, Harvard University Spring 2008
Teaching Fellow, Science A-47, Harvard University Fall 2006
Gateway Science Workshop Leader, Physics 135, Northwestern Unversity 2002-2003

Service and Outreach


Student-Faculty Judiciary Board, Harvard University 2009
Graduate Student Admissions Committee, 2008-2009
Department of Astronomy, Harvard University
Science Olympiad Mentor, Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School 2008-
Referee: The Astrophysical Journal
Referee: The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Member Society for Physics Students 2005-2010

Honors and Awards


Einstein Postdoctoral Fellowship Award #PF0-110078 ($312,000) 2010-2013
TAC Fellowship 2013-2014
Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society 2005
Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Honor Society 2005
Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship 2001-2005
DAAD International Grant 2003
Golden Key International Honours Society 2003-
James R. Hoffa Memorial Scholarship 2001

Publications


THE FORMATION OF THE FIRST COSMIC STRUCTURES AND THE PHYSICS OF THE z~20 UNIVERSE .
R. M. O'Leary and M. McQuinn. ApJ, 760:4, November 2012.

THE IMPACT OF THE SUPERSONIC BARYON-DARK MATTER VELOCITY DIFFERENCE ON THE z~20 21cm BACKGROUND.
M. McQuinn and R. M. O'Leary. ApJ, 760:3, November 2012.

STAR CLUSTERS AROUND RECOILED BLACK HOLES IN THE MILKY WAY HALO : N-BODY SIMULATIONS AND A CANDIDATE SEARCH THROUGH THE SDSS.
R. M. O'Leary and A. Loeb. MNRAS, 421:2737, April 2012.

GRAVITATIONAL WAVES FROM SCATTERING OF STELLAR-MASS BLACK HOLES IN GALACTIC NUCLEI.
R. M. O'Leary, B. Kocsis, and A. Loeb. MNRAS, 395:2127, June 2009.

STAR CLUSTERS AROUND RECOILED BLACK HOLES IN THE MILKY WAY HALO.
R. M. O'Leary and A. Loeb. MNRAS, 395:781, May 2009.

HYPERVELOCITY STARS FROM THE ANDROMEDA GALAXY.
B. D. Sherwin, A. Loeb, and R. M. O'Leary. MNRAS, 386:1179, May 2008.

PRODUCTION OF HYPERVELOCITY STARS THROUGH ENCOUNTERS WITH STELLAR-MASS BLACK HOLES IN THE GALACTIC CENTRE.
R. M. O'Leary and A. Loeb. MNRAS, 383:86, January 2008.

DYNAMICAL INTERACTIONS AND THE BLACK-HOLE MERGER RATE OF THE UNIVERSE.
R. M. O'Leary, R. O'Shaughnessy, and F. A. Rasio. Phys. Rev. D., 76(6):061504, September 2007.

BINARY MERGERS AND GROWTH OF BLACK HOLES IN DENSE STAR CLUSTERS.
R. M. O'Leary, F. A. Rasio, J. M. Fregeau, N. Ivanova, and R. O'Shaughnessy. ApJ, 637:937, February 2006.


Publications in Preparation


Conference Contributions and Talks


Invited Seminar, ``Finding the First Black Holes'', October 2011
FLASH Seminar, The University of California, Santa Cruz

Invited Talk, ``Finding the First Black Holes'', September 2011
The Future of Astronomy: Fellows at the Frontiers of Science. Evanston, IL

Invited Talk, ``Rare objects in the Milky Way Halo'' May 2010
2010 Sackler Conference: Dynamics from the Galactic Center to the Milky Way Halo. Cambridge, MA

Talk, ``Searching for star clusters around recoiling BHs in the Milky Way halo'' December 2009
Stars and Singularities: The physics of dense cusps around massive black holes, Weizmann Institute of Science. Rehovot, Israel

Talk, ``Gravitational waves from scattering of stellar-mass black holes in galactic nuclei'' June 2009
8th Edoardo Amladi Conference on Gravitational Waves. New York, NY

Talk, ``Star clusters around recoiled black holes in the Milky Way halo'' April 2009
Poster, ``Gravitational waves from scattering of stellar-mass black holes in galactic nuclei''
5th UC Irvine Center for Cosmology Workshop: Intermediate-Mass Black Holes from First Light to Galactic Nuclei. Irvine, CA

Invited Seminar, ``Gravitational waves from scattering of stellar-mass black holes in galactic nuclei'' October 2008
Physics Department, Columbia University. New York, NY

Talk, ``Production of hypervelocity stars through encounters with stellar-mass black holes in the Galactic Centre'' June 2007
Galactic Center Workshop Ringberg 2007. Ringberg, Germany

Poster, ``Dynamical evolution of black holes in dense clusters'' August 2005
MODEST 6, Northwestern University. Evanston, IL

Talk, ``Dynamical evolution of black holes in globular clusters'' October 2004
14th Midwest Relativity Meeting, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Milwaukee, WI