Gravitational-wave astrophysics

Stephen R. Taylor

Associate Professor of Physics & AstronomyVanderbilt University

I search for gravitational waves and their astrophysical sources — supermassive black holes, cosmic strings, and early-Universe echoes — using pulsar timing arrays and the upcoming LISA space mission.

Explore my research Download CV Contact

Stephen Taylor in front of a whiteboard covered in equations

About

Turning raw data into discoveries about the most extreme physics in the universe

I’m an Associate Professor of Physics & Astronomy at Vanderbilt University, where I direct VIPER — the Vanderbilt Initiative for Probes of Extreme Relativity. I chair the NANOGrav Collaboration and am one of six US scientists on the ESA–NASA LISA Science Team.

My group develops Bayesian and AI-driven methods for gravitational-wave data analysis, spanning pulsar timing arrays and LISA.

Previously: NASA Postdoctoral Fellow, JPL; NANOGrav Senior Postdoctoral Fellow, Caltech
Education: Ph.D., University of Cambridge; M.Phys., University of Oxford
Book: Nanohertz Gravitational Wave Astronomy (CRC Press, 2021)

Curriculum vitae The VIPER group

Research

Gravitational waves across the nanohertz–millihertz band

From light-year wavelengths probed by pulsar timing arrays to the millihertz band LISA will open, my group asks what gravitational waves reveal about black holes, galaxies, and the early Universe.

Pulsar timing arrays

Nanohertz gravitational waves

Millisecond pulsars are nature's most stable clocks. Timing dozens of them across the Milky Way turns the Galaxy into a detector for gravitational waves with light-year wavelengths.

Multi-messenger astrophysics

Supermassive black-hole binaries

Forecasting, finding, and characterizing individual binaries — and pinpointing their host galaxies — to connect gravitational-wave signals with electromagnetic observations.

ESA–NASA LISA mission

Millihertz gravitational waves

Population inference within the LISA global fit, targeting stellar-mass binaries, massive black-hole mergers, and extreme mass-ratio inspirals.

All three rest on the Bayesian and machine-learning methods my group develops. Methods and software →

June 29, 2023 · NSF Headquarters

Evidence for a gravitational-wave background

NANOGrav’s 15-year data set provided the first compelling evidence for a background of nanohertz gravitational waves, revealed through the correlations they imprint on pulse arrival times across the array. I co-led the evidence paper and announced the result at the National Science Foundation, alongside Kip Thorne and Jocelyn Bell Burnell.

of pulsar timing: 15 yr
millisecond pulsars: 67

Read the paper arXiv:2306.16213

The Hellings–Downs curve — the angular correlation pattern that a gravitational-wave background imprints on pairs of pulsars.

Speaking

Selected lectures

2025
Invited talk on LISA data analysis
APS Global Physics Summit, Anaheim
2024
Eddington Lecture
Royal Astronomical Society, London, and Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge
Watch
2024
Fred Kavli Plenary Lecture
American Astronomical Society, New Orleans
Watch
2023
Plenary lecture
Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics, Shanghai
2023
Announcing NANOGrav's 15-year results
National Science Foundation, Washington DC · main speaker
Watch
2019
Plenary lecture
GR22 / Amaldi13, Valencia

All invited talks Speaking and media requests

In the press

Recognition

Selected honors

All honors and awards

2025
Bruno Rossi Prize
American Astronomical Society · with the NANOGrav Collaboration
2025
Chancellor's Award for Research
Vanderbilt University
2024
ESA–NASA LISA Science Team
NASA appointee — one of six US scientists
2024
Frontiers of Science Award in Theoretical Physics
International Congress of Basic Science
2021
NSF CAREER Award
National Science Foundation
2014
NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship
Jet Propulsion Laboratory