The American Physical Society (APS) has elected Yale astrophysicist Chiara Mingarelli a fellow of the society.
In its citation, APS noted Mingarelli's "pioneering contributions to pulsar timing array theory and gravitational-wave astrophysics, including foundational frameworks for anisotropic gravitational-wave backgrounds and the advancement of multimessenger gravitational-wave astronomy."
APS is a nonprofit membership organization that advances the knowledge of physics and has more than 50,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories, and industry. The society announced the election of its 2026 fellows on Oct. 9.
Mingarelli is an assistant professor of physics in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She has been widely recognized for her contributions to research using pulsar timing arrays to detect nanohertz-frequency gravitational waves - including those generated by supermassive black hole binaries. She is a member of the NANOGrav (North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves) collaboration - a multi-institution organization that combines some of the world's most advanced telescopes and other technologies with a goal of detecting gravitational waves.
In 2023, NANOGrav reported on the discovery of the first direct evidence of a background of gravitational waves, suggesting that gravitational waves, caused by slowly merging pairs of supermassive black holes, could be detected from Earth within a background field of low-frequency energy. That discovery helped confirm the accuracy of standard models of galaxy formation and black hole growth.
