About Me
I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) in the Physics Department. My research is focused on high-energy astrophysics, where I analyze X-ray activity of supermassive black holes. I study a variety of supermassive black hole environments in order to understand which factors are critical to their evolution. I am Israeli astrophysicist, born in Rehovot, but spent most of my life growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Academic Background
I received my my PhD in Astronomy & Astrophysics at University of Michigan in 2020, and received the 2020 Proquest Distinguished Dissertation Award for my dissertation “Discovering the Missing Population of AGN Pairs with Chandra”. I then spent 3 years as a Porat Postdoctoral Fellow at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) at Stanford University, before joining UMBC in 2023.
Ph.D. Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Michigan (2020)
M.S. Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Michigan (2017)
B.A. Astronomy & Physics, Boston University (2014)
News
04.2024 / Is Time Travel Even Possible?
Check out Dr. Foord's newest article on The Conversation's Curious Kids Series "Could a telescope ever see the beginning of time? An astronomer explains."Curious Kids is a series that lets experts across the country answer questions posed by kids.
02.2024 / Paul Wampler Wins Academic Fellowship Program
Congratulations to group member Paul Wampler, who has been selected by UMBC's College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences as a recipient of the Academic Fellowship Program (funded by Merck)! The Academic Fellowship Program is aimed at increasing the number of data scientists from under-represented minorities in the life sciences workforce. The funding will support his research over the next year.
12.2023 / UMBC News Highlights AXIS
UMBC News has just highlighted AXIS's phase A proposal submission, in the article "Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite science team hits major milestone." Check it out!
11.2023 / AXIS White Papers on arXiv
The AXIS team has just released their suite of white papers to arXiv. Be sure to check out Dr. Foord's lead white paper on Detecing Dual AGN with AXIS, along with the 6 other papers:
Wandering Intermediate Black Holes with AXIS
Resolving AGN Fueling with AXIS
AGN in Overdense Environments with AXIS
Go AXIS!
10.2023 / Is Time Travel Even Possible?
Check out Dr. Foord's newest article on The Conversation's Curious Kids Series "Is time travel even possible? An astrophysicist explains the science behind the science fiction"
Wormholes, failed dinner parties, and cosmic time machines, oh my!
08.2023 / Assistant Professor at UMBC
I'm excited to be joining the Physics Department at UMBC at the end of August! I'll be slowly building a team of excellent scientists - stay tuned!