Alexander Rawlings Wins Väisälä Prize for Outstanding PhD Thesis

The Finnish Astronomical Society has honoured the new MPA postdoc Alexander Rawlings with the prestigious Väisälä Prize for the best PhD thesis in astronomy completed in Finland between 2024 and 2025.

Rawlings, who earned his doctorate from the University of Helsinki, was selected for his novel research on “supermassive black hole (SMBH) dynamics in massive galaxies”. His work explores how SMBHs interact and merge during galaxy collisions, a process that releases powerful bursts of gravitational waves – key targets for next-generation observatories like the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and pulsar timing arrays.

Using advanced simulations with the Ketju code, Rawlings investigated how numerical methods affect the accuracy of SMBH merger models and studied the dramatic consequences of gravitational wave recoil – where a merged SMBH is ejected from its host galaxy at high velocity. His findings provide critical predictions for detecting recoiling black holes in current and future observational campaigns.

The Väisälä Prize, named after renowned Finnish astronomer Yrjö Väisälä, is awarded every two years and highlights the importance of fundamental research in understanding the universe’s most extreme phenomena. As part of the honor, Rawlings delivered a solicited talk at the Nordic-Baltic Astronomer’s Days 2026 in Turku, where he presented his research to an international audience of astrophysicists.

Rawlings now continues his research at MPA, supported by the Excellence Cluster Origins, where he will further explore the role of black holes in galaxy evolution and the gravitational wave sky.