Mislav Balokovic

In my position as a YCAA fellow I will be working with Prof. Urry on better understanding the co-evolution of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies. My research interests in astrophysics include observations and theoretical modeling of active galactic nuclei.

Using primarily X-ray spectroscopy, I aim to better constrain the geometry and physical characteristics of structures that surround accreting supermassive black holes. My previous work focused in particular on understanding the nature of obscuration, because of which the majority of actively growing supermassive black holes are hidden from our direct view.

Most of my work is based on data from X-ray telescopes in Earth’s orbit. As a member of several large collaborations (NuSTAR, BASS, EHT), I am also actively involved in ground-based observations of active galaxies at optical, infrared and radio wavelengths. More details can be found on my (old) academic website: https://www.astro.caltech.edu/~mislavb

I have been an amateur astronomer for a long time, and enjoy spending time sharing the excitement of astronomy with the general public through public telescope viewing events, lectures, and more recently, graphical and other published media. As a member of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, which successfully produced the first spatially resolved image of a black hole, I coordinated the outreach efforts of the collaboration on the global scale, including the announcement of the first image in April 2019.

Away from astronomy, I enjoy cooking and baking, long walks and spending time outside. In the recent pandemic times, I became a big fan of board games and an avid “settler of Catan”.