Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos | Stephen Kerby

Stephen Kerby - Graduate Student - Graduate Student

Office: 532C Davey Laboratory

Address: 525 Davey Laboratory

Email: sek289@psu.edu

Phone: --

Welcome! I’m Steve Kerby, a graduate student here at the PSU Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. My research with Dr. Abe Falcone focuses on high-energy astronomy using observations from the Fermi and Swift space telescopes. Before arriving at PSU, I studied physics and astronomy at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, graduating in 2019. I’m originally from Wheaton, a suburb of Chicago, incidentally the hometown of Edwin Hubble and Grote Reber (the father of radio astronomy).

Outside of my academic work, I spend time playing the bass, practicing martial arts, and hiking.

My research with Dr. Abe Falcone focuses on emission of pulsars, blazars, and other sources using survey data from the Fermi and Swift space telescopes. Examining the unassociated Fermi-LAT sources using follow-up Swift observations, I hope to build more complete samples of galactic and extra-galactic sources while examining in detail their spectra.

My other research collaborations include work in SETI, variable stars, and galactic halos.

The IGC wordmark was created by Monica Rincon Ramirez, while she was a graduate student at the Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos (IGC). Monica enjoys drawing new connections between fundamental theory and observations. Her graduate work includes specialized topics in general relativity, loop quantum gravity, and quantum fields in cosmological backgrounds. In particular, her thesis work focused on finding effective quantum corrections to gravitational phenomena from spinfoams, and applications to cosmology. She received her PhD in 2024.

The wordmark symbolizes the scope and variety of research at the IGC. The base of the image represents quantum gravity, evoking the quantum geometrical picture from spinfoams and loop quantum gravity. These are among the approaches to fundamental questions studied at the Center for Fundamental Theory. The middle of the image represents the Center for Theoretical and Observational Cosmology by galaxies embedded in a smooth surface, characteristic of spacetime in general relativity and the much larger physical scales studied in cosmology. Finally, at the top, the surface curves to an extreme, representing a supermassive black hole accompanied by an energetic jet. These elements depict an active galactic nucleus, inspired by Centaurus A. Just to the right, a pair of black holes approaches merger. This top portion of the wordmark represents the Center for Multimessenger Astrophysics, which specializes in the study of high-energy phenomena in the universe.