Nick Kaaz
Affiliated Scientist
I am a theoretical astrophysicist specializing in black hole accretion flows. I am currently finishing my PhD at Northwestern University under the supervision of Alexander Tchekhovskoy and will begin as a joint PCTS/PGI postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University in Fall 2025. My work centers around understanding how gas is transported to black holes. One of my main interests is understanding how angular momentum and magnetic fields are transported in accretion disks. Spinning black holes twist up spacetime, causing the disk to become "warped". Warped accretion disks behave in distinct ways compared to flat, planar disks and are one of my main research focuses. I am especially interested in how warped accretion disks lead to observationally distinct signatures in the context of active galactic nuclei and X-ray binaries. Sophisticated numerical tools enable much of my work, and in particular, I use some of the largest general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations in the world to tackle these problems. I am extremely excited to be affiliated with SCEECS, where I will get to collaborate with our community's leading astrophysicists to understand these enigmatic systems.