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Maya Fishbach, an assistant professor with the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA) in the Faculty of Arts & Science, has been awarded the prestigious  for 2023.

The provincial government awards the Polanyi Prize annually to early-career researchers from Ontario universities. Established in 1987, the award is named in honour of John Charles Polanyi, Emeritus in the department of chemistry and recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize. The winners are nominated by the deans of university graduate schools across Ontario and chosen by a selection committee organized by the Ontario Council on Graduate Studies

A gravitational wave astrophysicist, Fishbach studies collisions of black holes and neutron stars. Through a combination of data analysis and theoretical modeling, her research strives to explain how, where and when black holes and neutron stars form and merge. By combining gravitational wave and electromagnetic radiation observations, Fishbach is advancing knowledge on everything from stars to cosmology.

“I’m incredibly grateful to receive this award in recognition of my past work and the future promise of gravitational-wave astrophysics,” says Fishbach, a member of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA gravitational wave collaboration and the principal investigator of the LIGO scientific collaboration group at CITA.

“I’m especially honoured to join the inspiring cohort of past Polanyi prize recipients whom I greatly admire and for the opportunity to celebrate John Polanyi and his legacy.”