Carlos O. Lousto is
Distinguished
Professor in the School of Mathematical Sciences in

Rochester Institute of Technology The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in Henrietta, New York, a suburb of Rochester, New York, Rochester. It was founded in 1829. It is one of only two institute of technology, institut ...

, known for his work on

black hole A black hole is a massive, compact astronomical object so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping, even light. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will form a black hole. Th ...

collisions.

Professional career

Lousto is a
Distinguished
Professor in the RIT's School of Mathematical Sciences and co-director of the

Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation The Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation (CCRG) is a research center of the College of Science (COS) and a Research Center of Excellence at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) dedicated to research at the frontiers of numerical ...

. He holds two PhDs, one in Astronomy (studying accretion disks around black holes and the structure of neutron stars) from the

National University of La Plata The National University of La Plata (, UNLP) is a national public research university located in the city of La Plata, capital of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It has over 90,000 regular students, 10,000 teaching staff, 17 departments and 10 ...

, and one in Physics from the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires (, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the second-oldest university in the country, and the largest university of the country by enrollment. Established in 1821 ...

(on Quantum Field Theory in curved spacetimes), received in 1987 and 1992. Carlos Lousto has an extensive research experience which ranges from observational astronomy to black hole perturbation theory and numerical relativity to string theory and quantum gravity. He has authored and co-authored over 250 papers , including several reviews and book chapters. His research is funded by

NSF NSF may stand for: Political organizations *National Socialist Front, a Swedish National Socialist party *NS-Frauenschaft, the women's wing of the former German Nazi party * National Students Federation, a leftist Pakistani students' political g ...

and

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

grants and supercomputing allocations in national labs. Lousto is a key author of the breakthrough on binary black hole simulations and his research discovered that supermassive black holes can be ejected from most galaxies at speeds of up to 5000 km/s. He recently performed challenging simulations of small mass ratio black hole binaries up to 100:1 and at separations up to 100M and for flip-flopping black holes. Lousto has designed the Funes (UTB), NewHorizon, BlueSky, and GreenPrairies (RIT) supercomputer clusters to perform binary black hole simulations and used them to support the first detection of gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes.

Distinctions

In 1991, Carlos Lousto was honored with an

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation () is a foundation that promotes international academic cooperation between scientists and scholars from Germany and abroad. Established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, it is funded by t ...

fellowship. In 2006 and in 2016 his research was acknowledged in the US congressional records. In 2012, Carlos Lousto was elected a Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

"For his important contributions at the interface between perturbation theory and numerical relativity and in understanding how to simulate binary black holes". 2016 Special

Breakthrough Prize The Breakthrough Prizes are a set of international awards bestowed in three categories by the Breakthrough Prize Board in recognition of scientific advances. The awards are part of several "Breakthrough" initiatives founded and funded by Yuri M ...

in Fundamental Physics "For the observation of gravitational waves, opening new horizons in astronomy and physics". 2019 Edward A. Bouchet Award Recipient "For contributions to both numerical relativity, conducive to the solution of the binary black hole problem, and the understanding of the first detection of gravitational waves and service to the Hispanic scientific community, including the establishment of the Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy, the University of Texas at Brownsville in 2003".

Selected bibliography

Highlights per year: * * * * * * * * * * *

References

External links

*
Radio Interview
*
TV interview, P1TV interview, P2
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lousto, Carlos Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Argentine astrophysicists Argentine mathematicians Fellows of the American Physical Society National University of La Plata alumni Scientists from Buenos Aires Rochester Institute of Technology faculty University of Buenos Aires alumni