Kareem El-Badry
Kareem El-Badry (born 1994) is an American astronomer and astrophysicist. He is an assistant professor of astronomy at the California Institute of Technology.[1]
Biography
El-Badry was born in Roseburg, Oregon. He attended Yale University as an undergraduate and received a PhD in astrophysics from UC Berkeley. He conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard University before moving to Caltech in 2023.[2]
Research
El-Badry's research is focused on black holes and binary stars. He discovered Gaia BH1, the nearest known black hole to the Earth.[3] He also discovered the fastest-moving star known in the Milky Way, a white dwarf thought to have been ejected from a binary system when its companion exploded.[4]
Awards and recognition
El-Badry was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship[5] and a MacArthur Fellowship in 2025.[6]
References
- ^ "Faculty: Kareem El-Badry". California Institute of Technology Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy. Retrieved February 17, 2026.
- ^ "Blue Dot: New MacArthur Fellow Kareem El-Badry from Caltech on black holes, binary and hypervelocity stars". Blue Dot podcast. Retrieved February 17, 2026.
- ^ "New York Times: Astronomers Find a Black Hole in Our Cosmic Back Yard". New York Times. Retrieved February 17, 2026.
- ^ "New Scientist: Fastest star in the galaxy clocked at 2285 kilometres per second". New Scientist. Retrieved February 17, 2026.
- ^ "Caltech News: Trio of Caltech Professors Named Sloan Fellows". California Institute of Technology. Retrieved February 17, 2026.
- ^ "Kareem El-Badry: MacArthur Fellows". MacArthur Foundation. Retrieved February 17, 2026.