Floor Broekgaarden, Ph.D.

Floor Broekgaarden is a postdoctoral fellow in astrophysics at Columbia University in the Theory and High Energy Astrophysics group. She completed a B.S. degree in physics and mathematics from the University of Amsterdam in 2017, as well as an M.S. in astronomy in 2018, and obtained her Ph.D. in astrophysics from Harvard in 2023, during which she held a NASA FINESST fellowship and was a Harvard Horizons Scholar. Her research focuses on “gravitational-wave paleontology”: using the collisions of black holes and neutron stars observed with gravitational waves to probe the formation, lives and deaths of massive stars across cosmic time.

Making the most of the gravitational-wave observations requires comparing the observed properties of the black hole mergers, such as their rates, masses and spins, to theoretical models of their formation pathways. However, this endeavor is currently limited by the so-called progenitor “uncertainty challenge”: uncertainties within the theoretical models are so large, and the models so computationally expensive, that learning about the underlying fundamental physical processes in massive star evolution from gravitational-wave observations is out of reach. Floor’s work combines cosmology, stellar evolution and machine learning methods to tackle the uncertainty challenge.

Besides her research, Floor also leads several efforts to improve equity, diversity and inclusion in astronomy. Among other things, Floor led the early-career astronomers conference at the European Astronomy Society meeting, and she has organized many other resources, workshops and talks for early-career scientists on topics including first-generation astronomers, imposter syndrome and applying to jobs.