Hi, I'm Jay!

I’m a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, where I use supercomputers to model some of the universe’s most dramatic and mysterious events. My work sits at the crossroads of astrophysics, numerical relativity, and high-performance computing, with the goal of turning the physics of cosmic collisions into simulations that can run at exascale.

My research currently focuses on two main arenas of extreme gravity:

• Binary neutron star mergers, where I study how the hot, magnetized remnants evolve, launch relativistic jets, and produce luminous kilonovae.
• Merging supermassive black hole binaries, where I investigate how surrounding gas accretes, interacts with the spacetime, and lights up as these titanic systems spiral together.

To tackle these challenges, I lead the development of AsterX, a GPU-accelerated GRMHD code built for next-generation supercomputers, and the upcoming neutrino-transport code nuX.

Get in touch

• Email: jkalinan@illinois.edu