Workshop: Black Holes from Theory to Observations

May 11 - 13, 2026

This workshop, organized jointly with the Princeton Gravity Initiative, aims to bring together experts from different areas intersecting black hole physics, ranging from particle theory to astrophysical observations, with the goal of finding a convergent direction toward the most pressing questions that can be addressed in the coming years.

Some of the topics that will be covered include:

~ Black Hole quasinormal modes
~ Photon ring physics
~ AGN and accretion
~ Gravitational waves and scattering physics
~ Extremal Black Holes
 

Program Organizers:
Alfredo Guevara, Institute for Advanced Study
Juan Maldacena, Institute for Advanced Study
Nils Siemonsen, Princeton Gravity Initiative
Giovanni Maria Tomaselli, Institute for Advanced Study
 

Confirmed Speakers:
Yiber Fabián Bautista, University of Edinburgh
Emanuele Berti, Johns Hopkins University
Sylvia Biscoveanu, Princeton University
Alessandra Buonanno, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics
Matteo Cantiello, Flatiron Institute
Mariana De Amicis, Perimeter Institute
Matthew Dodelson, Harvard University
Giulia Isabella, UCLA
Mikhail Ivanov, MIT
Michael Johnson, Harvard University
Maciej Kolanowski, UC Santa Barbara
Alex Lupsasca, Vanderbilt University and Open AI
Donal O'Connell, University of Edinburgh
Frans Pretorius, Princeton University
Eliot Quataert, Princeton University
Andrew Strominger, Harvard University
Riccardo Sturani, UNESP Brazil
Ryan Unger, UC Berkeley
Niels Warburton, University College Dublin
George Wong, IAS and Princeton University

This workshop will be held in person only.

This workshop is co-sponsored by the Carl P. Feinberg Program in Cross-Disciplinary Innovation and the Princeton Gravity Initiative.

Contact Audrey Smerkanich, audrey@ias.edu, with any inquiries.