About Richard O’Shaughnessy

I joined the RIT faculty in 2014. My academic journey began at the California Institute of Technology, where I completed my PhD in Physics under the supervision of Kip Thorne.

Following my PhD, I held postdoctoral fellowships with LIGO-affiliated groups at:

• Northwestern University
• Penn State University
• The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Research Interests

My work centers on gravitational wave astronomy, specifically:

• Precessing Black Hole Binaries: Connecting stellar astrophysics and binary evolution.
• General Relativity: Dynamics in both weak- and strong-field regimes.
• Bayesian Parameter Estimation: Developing theoretical and computational tools for rapid, low-latency parameter estimation to enable multimessenger astronomy.

I collaborate closely with colleagues at the Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation (CCRG) to compare LIGO data with state-of-the-art simulations of Einstein’s theory of gravity.