Miguel Zilhão, who wil be finishing his Ph.D. in the summer of 2012, has taken a post-doctoral offer from the Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation (CCRG) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), a world leading group in the area of Numerical Relativity. Congratulations Miguel!
Miguel did his Ph.D. under the supervision of Carlos Herdeiro and Vitor Cardoso, based at Porto and Aveiro Universities as well as IST-Lisbon. During his doctoral work he was invited to spend also long periods at various other institutions such as at the University of Mississippi, at the Institut de Ciències de l'Espai (CSIC-IEEC) in Barcelona and at the Perimeter Institute.
His research focused on applying numerical relativity techniques to scenarios beyond the typical astrophysical applications, involving a large component of high performance computing. Amongst other works, he co-authored the first simulations in full blown non-linear general relativity, of black hole collisions in: a higher dimensional space-time, based on a formalism he co-developed and in a space-time with reflecting boundary conditions - to mimic the global structure of Anti-de-Sitter space.
Miguel also developed other lines of research during his Ph.D., producing a remarkably broad and original doctoral work.
The CCRG has "the primary mission to conduct research at the frontiers of gravitational physics, relativistic astrophysics and advanced computation". It was one of the groups that led the numerical relativity revolution of 2005, producing a stable algorithm for binary black hole coalescence using the moving punctures approach.