Tousif Islam (তৌসিফ ইসলাম)

Hello Universe!

I am a Kavli Postdoctoral Scholar at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP), University of California Santa Barbara with Prof. Tejaswi Venumadhav and Prof. Lars Bildsten. I am also a Long-term Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar at the Theoretical AstroPhysics Including Relativity and Cosmology (TAPIR), California Institute of Technology with Prof. Saul Teukolsky. I did my PhD at the Center for Scientific Computing and Visualization Research (CSCVR), University of Massachusetts (UMass) Dartmouth where I worked on gravitational wave astronomy with Prof. Scott Field, Prof. Gaurav Khanna and Prof. Vijay Varma. There, I was a member of the recently formed UMass-University of Rhodes Island (URI) Gravity Research Consortium (U²GRC).

My research lies at the intersection of gravitational physics, data science, and artificial intelligence, with a focus on gravitational-wave (GW) astronomy. I develop reduced-order surrogate models for GWs from binary black hole mergers and apply them to source characterization, population inference, and fundamental tests of gravity. By combining high-fidelity numerical relativity simulations with machine-learning techniques, my work aims to improve both the accuracy and efficiency of gravitational-wave data analysis. In recent times, I am also interested in connecting high-fidelity numerical relativity simulations and reduced-order models to broader astrophysical and cosmological studies, including multimessenger and multiwavelength observations with optical facilities such as Gaia and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). I am always happy to discuss my research and explore potential collaborations, and I welcome inquiries from interested colleagues.

Research

I am a member of the LIGO-Virgo collaboration, LISA Consortium and Simulating Extreme Spacetimes (SXS) collaboration. For details of my research works, please navigate the following tabs. My research focuses on many aspects of Gravitational-Wave astronomy and beyond GR theories. I work primarily on building reduced order surrogate models from binary black holes based on Numerical Relativity data and point-particle black-hole perturbation theory (ppBHPT) waveforms.