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Watch out for the press-release of the NANOGrav collaboration! Thursday, June 29th, 1pm EDT.

Hello! I'm Rutger van Haasteren, a researcher exploring the intersections of theoretical physics, computational astrophysics, and machine learning. Currently, I'm a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute, AEI) in Hannover, Germany, where my team contributes significantly to advancing pulsar timing array (PTA) science.

My academic journey began at Leiden University in the Netherlands, where I obtained my Master's and Ph.D. in theoretical physics. My doctoral research, supervised by Yuri Levin, focused on gravitational-wave detection and data analysis methods for pulsar timing arrays. I was fortunate to be involved early in laying the foundations for today's PTA projects, work that has since had a substantial impact on both the astrophysics and cosmology communities.

Following my Ph.D., I joined Bruce Allen's gravitational-wave group at the AEI, a group which initially focused on ground-based interferometers like LIGO and Virgo. Later, as an NSF Einstein Fellow at Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Lab in California, I concentrated on foundational data analysis methods for the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves ((NANOGrav)) collaboration, part of the International Pulsar Timing Array ((IPTA)).

Afterward, driven by my interest in machine learning, I spent five enriching years at Microsoft as a senior data scientist, where my projects spanned language models, forecasting, Latent Dirichlet Allocation, and reinforcement learning for advertising optimization.

I then returned to AEI, partnering again with Bruce Allen to establish and lead a thriving research group dedicated to PTA data analysis methods and gravitational-wave detection. Our group now comprises five Ph.D. students, four postdoctoral researchers, and numerous visitors, all collaboratively contributing to improving algorithmic methods, workflows, and software tools that significantly enhance the scientific output of the international PTA community.

Beyond research, I'm passionate about Bayesian inference, statistical modeling, and the clarity that simple models bring to complex problems. Teaching and mentorship also remain central to my work—I deeply enjoy sharing insights, fostering curiosity, and igniting understanding in others.

This is me—Rutger van Haasteren: researcher, educator, and enthusiastic investigator. I invite you to join me in this ongoing journey of discovery.