Welcome
My name is Chris Whittall and I am a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Birmingham.
Research Interests
I am interested in topics in gravitational physics, including:
- Black Holes
- Gravitational Waves
- Self-force and EMRIs
I am currently researching methods to accelerate the evaluation of gravitational waveform templates for next-generation gravitational wave detectors using reduced order modelling and artificial neural networks.
I am also actively interested in gravitational self-force, and in particular its application to the problem of black hole scattering. My PhD research centred on the development of frequency-domain numerical methods for calculating the self-force during hyperbolic binary black hole encounters. My thesis was titled “Frequency-domain approach to self-force in hyperbolic scattering”, and Prof. Leor Barack (primary) and Prof. Adam Pound (secondary) were my supervisors. Funding for that project was provided by EPSRC.
I am a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Einstein Telescope Collaboration, and associate member of the LISA Consortium.
Academic Positions
University of Birmingham, Sep. 2024 - Present.
Education
University of Southampton, Sep. 2020 - Sep. 2024.
University of Cambridge, Oct. 2016 - Jun. 2020.