Reynolds, Chris

Chris Reynolds

Chris Reynolds is currently the Plumian Professor of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge, UK. Before moving to Cambridge in 2017, he had a 21 year career in the United States; five years as a postdoctoral research associate in JILA at the University of Colorado, and then 16 years on the professorial faculty of the Astronomy Department at the University of Maryland College Park (UMD). While there, he founded and was the first Director of the UMD/ NASA-Goddard Joint Space Science Institute (JSI).

Chris has broad interests in observational and theoretical high-energy astrophysics. Much of his previous work has been on black hole accretion disk theory, X-ray studies of strong gravity (including black hole spin) and AGN feedback. More recently, he has developed interest in the use of X-ray astronomy for constraining new particle physics. Chris has recently become the co-Chair of the new Athena Topical Panel on Physics Beyond the Standard Model.

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Iso-density contours from a simulated magnetohydrodynamic accretion disk around a black hole

Image: Iso-density contours from a simulated magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) accretion disk around a black hole by Hogg & Reynolds (2018, ApJ, vol 861, pp 24). A precipitous drop in density at the innermost stable circular orbit can be see; this sets an inner edge to the observable