Sayantani Bhattacharyya is a professor of physics at the School of Physical Sciences, National Institute of Science Education and Research, in Orisha, India. Her current research centres on the study of black holes in large spacetime dimensions. Previously, she developed novel perturbative techniques to solve classical gravity equations and established a connection between the equations of motion of classical gravity in anti-de Sitter space and the equations of fluid dynamics. While at Perimeter, Bhattacharyya plans to apply fluid dynamical analysis around the concept of entropy to higher derivative theories of gravity.

Cecilia Chirenti is a strong gravity theorist based at Universidade Federal do ABC in Brazil. Her research focuses on gravitational waves, the perturbative analysis of background spacetimes, and the properties of quasinormal modes of black holes, neutron stars, and other exotic objects. With a particular interest in connecting theory to future observations, Chirenti is a member of the 3G Science Case Team for third generation gravitational wave detectors. As a Simons Emmy Noether Fellow, Chirenti aims to collaborate with Perimeter researchers to glean new insights from gravitational wave data.

Lavinia Heisenberg is a theoretical physicist and cosmologist based at ETH Zurich. Her research investigates generalizations of gravity theory and the interplay between particle physics and cosmology, with a focus on the fundamental properties of field theories of spacetime. As a Simons Emmy Noether Fellow, Heisenberg aims to explore the application of particle physics methods to cosmological contexts and tests of gravity theories with gravitational waves and large-scale structure.

Wei Li is a professor at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her research explores the quantum gravity aspects of string theory and the mathematical physics that arises in string theory, quantum field theory, and quantum gravity in general. At Perimeter, Li plans to study the mathematical structures and relationships of string theory’s symmetry structures and investigate their applications to quantum field theory, quantum gravity, and string theory itself.

Katherine (Katie) Mack is an astroparticle physicist based at North Carolina State University whose research focuses on new approaches to the fundamental nature of dark matter. She is particularly interested in investigating the small-scale behaviour of dark matter and how we can use it to illuminate dark matter’s fundamental nature. Mack is a member of the CYGNUS dark matter detector collaboration. As a Simons Emmy Noether Fellow, Mack plans to explore key questions in dark matter phenomenology and early universe physics.

Catherine Meusburger is a quantum gravity theorist based at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg. Her research focuses on topological quantum field theories with defects and Kitaev lattice models, with a particular interest in how these theories relate to quantum gravity. Previously a postdoctoral fellow at Perimeter and returning as a Simons Emmy Noether Fellow, Meusburger looks forward to rich collaborations with mathematical physicists and condensed matter researchers during her fellowship.