Biography
Stephen Eikenberry completed his Ph.D in Astronomy at Harvard University in 1997 under Dr. Giovanni Fazio, and from there moved to the Sherman Fairchild Postdoctoral Prize Fellowship in Physics at Caltech. He was an Assistant Professor (1998) and then tenured Associate Professor (2002) in Astronomy at Cornell University, where he also won an NSF CAREER award in 2000. In 2003, Eikenberry left Cornell to become a Professor of Astronomy (and in 2012, Professor of Physics) at the University of Florida, where he remained until joining CREOL in 2021.Awards & Honors
- 2020 Undergraduate Teacher of the Year,
College of Liberal Arts & Science, University of Florida - 2009-2012, 2017-2020 University of Florida Research Foundation Professorship,
University of Florida - 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics,
Co-winner as member of the LIGO Science Consortium - 2016 Gruber Prize for Cosmology,
Co-winner as member of the LIGO Science Consortium - 2016 UK Royal Astronomical Society Team Achievement Award,
Co-winner as member of the LIGO Science Consortium - 2010 Grupo Santander Distinguished Visiting Professor in Physics,
Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain) - 2008 Colonel Allan R. and Margaret G. Crow Term Professorship,
University of Florida - 2000-2005 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award,
National Science Foundation - 1997 Sherman H. Fairchild Postdoctoral Prize Fellowship in Physics,
California Institute of Technology - 1997 Fireman Award for Graduate Student Research in Astrophysics,
Harvard University - 1996 Derek Bok Award for Excellence in Science Teaching,
Harvard University - 1994-1997 NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program Fellowship,
Harvard University
Research Group
My research focuses on studying black holes, neutron stars, and the massive stars that make them – as well as Dark Energy, gravitational waves, and extrasolar planets. I also design and build astronomical instruments (primarily infrared and optical) to carry out these observations, with related applications in biomedical imaging and spectroscopy.Research Scientists
There are currently no people listed for this position.
Graduate Students
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Publications
Sengupta, Aditya R.; Diaz, Jordan; DeMartino, Matthew; Jensen-Clem, Rebecca; Cetre, Sylvain; Gates, Elinor; Bundy, Kevin; Dillon, Daren; Hinz, Philip; Salama, Maissa; Skaf, N; Guyon, Olivier; Crowe, Tara; Dobias, Caleb; Eikenberry, Stephen S.); Amezcua-Correa, Rodrigo; Yerolatsitis, Stephanos "On-sky Demonstration of Second-stage Wave-front Control with a Photonic Lantern" Astronomical Journal, Volume: 171, Issue: 2 2026
S.S. Eikenberry
LIGO Consortium "Search for Gravitational-lensing Signatures in the Full Third Observing Run of the LIGO–Virgo Network" The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 970, Issue 2, id.191, 28 pp. 2025
Moraitis, C. ; Srijumnong, I. ; Eikenberry, S. ; Thomas, T. ; Akers, A. ; Bentz, M. C. "Spectroscopic Observations of recurrent nova T CrB: H-alpha, H-beta, and He II emission lines" The Astronomer's Telegram, No. 17110 2025
Eikenberry, S "Constraints on the Cosmic Expansion History from GWTC-3" Astrophysical Journal 949(2) 2024
Eikenberry, SS and 1669 more "Search for Gravitational-wave Transients Associated with Magnetar Bursts in Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo Data from the Third Observing Run" Astrophysical Journal 966(1) 2024
Eikenberry, S "A Joint Fermi-GBM and Swift-BAT Analysis of Gravitational-wave Candidates from the Third Gravitational-wave Observing Run." The Astrophysical Journal 964(149) 2024
Eikenberry, S "Revealing the characteristics of the dark GRB 150309A: Dust extinguished or high-z" Astronomy and Astrophysics 683(A55) 2024
Eikenberry, S "GWTC-2.1: Deep extended catalog of compact binary coalescences observed by LIGO and Virgo during the first half of the third observing run" Physical Review D 109(2) 2024
Richichi, A (Richichi, A.) [1] ; Fors, O (Fors, O.) [2] ; Canales, D (Canales, D.) [3] ; Patel, K (Patel, K.) [3] ; Zambrano, LEM (Zambrano, L. E. Mendoza) [3] ; Criscola, F (Criscola, F.) [3] ; Bevilacqua, R (Bevilacqua, R.) [3] ; Eikenberry, SS (Eikenberry, S. S.) [4] , [5] ; Gómez, JM (Gomez, J. M.) [6] "Lunar occultations events from the Earth-Moon equilateral Lagrangian point: simulations and scientific potential" Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 527(3) pp.6616-6623 2024
Eikenberry, S "GWTC-3: Compact Binary Coalescences Observed by LIGO and Virgo during the Second Part of the Third Observing Run" Physical Review X 13(4) 2023
Eikenberry, S "2023 Astrophotonics Roadmap: pathways to realizing multi-functional integrated astrophotonic instruments" Journal of Physics: Photonics 5(042501) 2023
Eikenberry, S "Controlled short-period orbits around Earth-Moon equilateral libration points for Lunar Occultations" Acta Astronautica 211 pp.781-794 2023
Eikenberry, S "Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with Fast Radio Bursts Detected by CHIME/FRB during the LIGO-Virgo Observing Run O3a" Astrophysical Journal 955(2) 2023
Eikenberry, S "Constraints on the Cosmic Expansion History from GWTC-3" Astrophysical Journal 949(2) 2023
Eikenberry, S "GTC data exploitation in the search for the first galaxies" Highlights on Spanish Astrophysics XI, La Laguna, Spain. 2023
Eikenberry, S "Population of Merging Compact Binaries Inferred Using Gravitational Waves through GWTC-3" Physical Review X 13(1) 2023
Eikenberry, S "OPA! The Original PolyOculus Array: A status update" UV/Optical/IR Space Telescopes and Instruments: Innovative Technologies and Concepts XI 12676 2023
LIGO Sci Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration, and Kagra Collaboration, S.S. Eikenberry "Narrowband Searches for Continuous and Long-duration Transient Gravitational Waves from Known Pulsars in the LIGO-Virgo Third Observing Run" Astrophysical Journal, 932(2), A. 133 2022
Alumni
PhD
There are currently no graduates listed for this degree.
MS
Tara Crowe, MS, Spring 2025
Aracelis Partida, MS, Summer 2024
Richard D'Alo, MS, Fall 2023