Adi Foord, PhD

Sometimes it feels like my baby is in a quantum superposition of awake and asleep … & the wavefunction collapses when I open the Nanit app.

Pure joy: a brand new piece of chalk for my morning lecture #ItsTheLittleThings

wish me luck today in my 9 am lecture 🤪

“ciao” is challenging to spell when you’ve slept in 2 hour chunks the night before 😵‍💫

#iykyk #xraysarethebestrays #somanyvowelssomanycombos

I’m hiring a postdoc to work with me at UMBC on AGN and galaxy mergers 💫

Details: apply.interfolio.com/180085

Please share & feel free to message me with any questions!

I spent so many hours in this library when I was a student, wandering through its cool collection, reading and learning.

“…the federal government will store some of the collection in warehouses and trash the rest.”

Absolutely heartbreaking 💔

I love this 😂, I’m keeping this in mind

Writing an NSF AAG with my 4 m/o permanently attached to me and averaging <2 hours of consecutive sleep… my dear collaborators, please triple-check all my text.

(I’m so grateful for this little human, and for the ability to keep doing what I love, even if a bit more slowly these days.)

Joseph Barranco posted on social media: Go Bears! Nobel Prize in Physics goes to 3 physicists studying mesoscopic quantum phenomena... Work was done in the 1980s in UC Berkeley Professor John Clarke's lab with his graduate student John Martinis and postdoctoral fellow Michel Devoret... all 3 share the Nobel Prize. Must also point out that both Clarke and Devoret are immigrants from the UK and France, respectively. All 3 are pioneers in the race to build the most powerful quantum supercomputers. California *public* education made this happen. Immigration made this happen.

Valuable info about the Physics Nobel Prize today from Prof. Joseph Barranco at SFSU on Martinis and Devoret being a grad student and postdoc in Clarke's lab at UC Berkeley & Clark and Devoret being immigrants. "California *public* education made this happen. Immigration made this happen." ⚛️

Find yourself a friend like @astronomay.bsky.social who drops off Taylor Swift–themed desserts while you’re on maternity leave 😍🔥

(I’ve only managed to snap a photo ... demanding, but cute, baby won’t let me actually eat them yet)

🤩

😂 Bluesky is a safe space because the interaction level is low

Black Hole Mergers Open Doors For Students - UMBC: University Of Maryland, Baltimore County Adi Foord is co-leading a research project designed to further understanding of how a rare type of black hole forms and changes over time. The project, recently funded by the NSF, also creates prime o...

When Adi Foord's work on supermassive black holes received NSF funding, it created prime opportunities for UMBC students to contribute, like Ph.D. student Zack Reeves and his research on pairs of black holes in the early stages of a potential merger.
umbc.edu/stories/blac...

Black Hole Mergers Open Doors For Students - UMBC: University Of Maryland, Baltimore County Adi Foord is co-leading a research project designed to further understanding of how a rare type of black hole forms and changes over time. The project, recently funded by the NSF, also creates prime o...

Thanks to the @umbc.edu for highlighting my recent NSF AAG grant and the student research it supports!

And yes - I’m 38 weeks pregnant in these photos. I’m proud to show that it’s possible to lead a thriving science program while also prioritizing life outside of work 💫

umbc.edu/stories/blac...

A very curious 12-year old Kieran asked @theconversation.com, "How does the camera on the James Webb Space Telescope work and see so far out?"

UMBC's @adifoord.bsky.social, assistant professor of physics, to the rescue!

umbc.edu/stories/how-...

American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history Over the first half of 2025, the USA has cut science as never before. This disaster for American science is a gift to the rest of the world.

American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history

The largest brain drain in history was when thousands of scientists left Nazi Germany; it became known as "Hitler's gift."

America's current assault on science is set to surpass that.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #science

A view of the remnants of a supernova explosion, featuring two concentric rings of ejected material. The outer ring glows in warm orange tones, while the inner ring is blue. The object is set against a dark backdrop sprinkled with distant stars.

💥💥 Double detonation! 

For the first time, astronomers have obtained visual evidence that a star met its end by detonating twice.

The fingerprint that points to this mechanism is represented by two separate shells of calcium.  

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2511/

🔭 🧪 ☄️ 1/

How can the James Webb Space Telescope see so far? The James Webb Space Telescope has 2 powerful instruments that see light the human eye can’t.

The James Webb #Space Telescope doesn't take regular photos - its detectors convert infrared light to digital data, which scientists on Earth process into the stunning full-color space images we see. buff.ly/zKxkEBk #JWST By @adifoord.bsky.social, University of Maryland, Baltimore County 🔭

How can the James Webb Space Telescope see so far? The James Webb Space Telescope has 2 powerful instruments that see light the human eye can’t.

Check out my latest "Curious Kids" article with the @us.theconversation.com about how the James Webb Space Telescope can see so far back in time 💫🛰️🤩

theconversation.com/how-can-the-...

lol so many memories of stressful afternoons trying to perfectly time my submissions

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

Why you should join a watch party for the first Vera C. Rubin images The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is releasing its first images on 23 June, showing us galaxies as we’ve never seen them before. Here’s how you can join a party to see those shots in full definition

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is releasing its first images on 23 June, showing us galaxies as we’ve never seen them before. Here’s how you can join a watch party to see those shots in full definition.

program details with time, topic, and speakers

Don’t miss our interactive AGN SIG session TODAY at 10am AK! Come to Egan Rm 11/12 to learn about the progress we’ve made since the last Astro2020, the upcoming NASA mission capabilities, and where we go from here. #AAS246 🔭

cor.gsfc.nasa.gov/copag/meetin...

A wild @norashipp.bsky.social appears!

Don't miss our new NASA Science spending and economic impact resource at dashboards.planetary.org/nasa-science.html — see space science spending in every state and congressional district and custom reports for each region. A unique resource.

There's a lot to unpack in the president's FY26 requested #NASA budget, but the near zeroing of the physics of the cosmos program (from $196M to $1.5M) is especially bleak. If passed, the future of high-energy astrophysics is not in the US. 🔭

NIH, NASA, NSF budget cuts, FY 2026 - catastrophic. https://joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/the-white-house-vision-for-dismantling

The White House Vision for Dismantling Science in One Simple Plot

(Proposed NIH, NSF, and NASA budgets would be catastrophic for innovation and discovery. But they aren’t reality yet. The time to speak up is now.)

joshuasweitz.substack.com/p/the-white-...

... everyone online is saying to loop this around a shirt button ... as if this is an option for all outfits 🙃 I am now searching for a safety pin 🤞

I love that you got to hood Larissa ❤️

a cat in a blue shirt is playing a keyboard ALT: a cat in a blue shirt is playing a keyboard

Got my PhD in Spring 2020 (peak lockdown, no hooding ceremony). Now I’m an Assistant Professor heading to undergrad commencement… and I have no clue how to wear this hood 😅🎓

Currently studying Google Images like it’s a final exam. Wish me luck! 👍

Yay summer! So excited to touch research again.