Matthew L. Lister
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Associate Professor of Physics mlister@purdue.edu Office: Physics 312 Telephone: 765-494-5171 B.S., Physics and Astronomy 1991, University of Toronto M.S., Physics and Astronomy 1993, University of Victoria Ph.D., Astronomy 1999, Boston University |
Current Research
Professor Lister's research involves the study of relativistic jets powered by supermassive black holes in distant galaxies. A sub-class of these, called blazars, have jets pointing directly at us, and thus appear extremely bright due to relativistic beaming effects. Blazars dominate the sky at high energies, and are among the most energetic phenomena ever discovered in nature. Prof. Lister heads up the international MOJAVE collaboration, which is studying blazars at ultra-high resolution with the Very Long Baseline Array radio telescope, as well as the Chandra X-ray and Fermi gamma-ray observatories. The MOJAVE program seeks to better understand the kinematics of the jet outflows, their magnetic field structure, and their emission mechanisms.
Graduate Students
He is examining the X-ray properties of prominent radio AGN jets on kiloparsec scales.
Postdoctoral Researchers
He is studying variability properties of active galactic nuclei in the radio and gamma-ray regimes.