Dr Jonathan Granot
(BSc, MSc, PhD)
Job title: Principal Lecturer
Memberships and Appointments:
Jonathan Granot does theoretical research, mainly in high-energy astrophysics and in particular on gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). He is also interested in soft gamma repeaters, gravitational lensing, high energy neutrinos, pulsar wind nebulae, relativistic fluid dynamics and MHD, dynamics of relativistic jets, and the structure and stability of blast waves. He did his PhD at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, followed by postdoctoral positions at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (2001-2004) and at KIPAC in Stanford (2004-2007), before moving to the University of Hertfordshire. He currently holds a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.
Dr Granot's research is at the cutting edge of the dynamical and rapidly evolving field of GRBs. He often combines analytic and numerical work, which provides realistic results together with a good physical understanding for their origin. He has worked on many different aspects of GRBs, including the structure and dynamics of GRB jets, their afterglow light curves, spectrum, images, and variability, viewing effects, orphan afterglows, X-Ray Flashes, Polarization, the supernova-GRB connection, short-hard GRBs, the early X-ray afterglow, and their high-energy emission. His work on the outflow from the SGR1806-20 giant flare has improved our understanding of such events.