Personal Information

Rory J. E. SmithDivision of Physics, Mathematics & AstronomyCalifornia Institute of Technology1200 E. California Blvd., PasadenaCalifornia, 91125USA

rory.smith@caltech.edu

Experience

2013–Present Postdoctoral Researcher in PhysicsLIGO LabDivision of Physics, Mathematics & AstronomyCalifornia Institute of Technology, USA

2014–2015 Co-founder and consultantFASTech LLCLa Jolla, CA, USA

2009–2013 Ph.D. in PhysicsUniversity of Birmingham, UK

2005–09 M.Sci. Theoretical Physics with Honours (Class 1)University of Birmingham, UK

Awards

2014 GWIC (Gravitational Wave International Committee)Thesis Prize (Honorable mention)

2013 S.T.E.P. Award, STFC, UK : Monetary Value £14,000($21,000)

2012 Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics Visiting Gra-duate Fellowship, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Phy-sics, Canada

2009 STFC Ph.D. Studentship, STFC, UK .

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2009 Teaching Development for Postgraduates Award, Univer-sity of Birmingham, UK.

Research Interests

Bayesian inference (parameter estimation and model se-lection) on experimental data sets

Signal analysis

High dimensional interpolation with sparse data for da-ta analysis and experimental design (Reduced Basis andEmpirical Interpolation Methods)

Approximation theory

Reduced order modeling

Programming Languages

C, Python – Fluent

MPI – Working kowledge

Matlab – Working knowledge

Software contributions

LIGO Algorithm Library Suite (LALsuite) - Regular con-tributor to Bayesian inference libraries. In particular, Iintroduced reduced order modeling and high-dimensionalinterpolation techniques to enable inference on LIGO da-ta, which are described by complex physical models. Thishas significantly improved the feasibility of extractingastronomical information from LIGO data.

Finesse (open source interferometer simulator) - Introdu-ced reduced order modeling techniques that improved co-de efficiency by up to three orders of magnitude, enabling

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real-time diagnosis of experimental setups and in depthexperimental simulations and design studies on laptops,or similar hardware.

Publications D. Brown, R. J. E. Smith and A. Freise: Fast Simula-tion of Gaussian-Mode Scattering for Precision Interfero-metry, arXiv:1507.03806 (2015)

P. Canizares, S. E. Field, J. Gair, V. Raymond, R. J.E. Smith and M. Tiglio: Accelerated Gravitational Wa-ve Parameter Estimation with Reduced Order Modeling,Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 071104 (2015)

J. Veitch et al: Parameter estimation for compact bi-naries with ground-based gravitational-wave observationsusing the LALInference software library, Phys. Rev. D91, 042003 (2015)

T. Sidery et al: Reconstructing the sky location of gravitational-wave detected compact binary systems: Methodology fortesting and comparison, Phys. Rev. D 89, 084060 (2014)

R. J. E. Smith, C. Hanna, I. Mandel and A. Vecchio:Rapidly sampling the compact binary likelihood functionvia interpolation, Phys. Rev. D 90, 044074 (2014).

J. Aasi et al. (LIGO-Virgo Scientific Collaboration):Parameter estimation for compact binary coalescence si-gnals with the first generation gravitational-wave detectornetwork, Phys. Rev. D 88, 062001 (2013)

R. J. E. Smith, K. Cannon, C. Hanna, D. Keppel and I.Mandel: Towards Rapid Parameter Estimation on Gravi-tational Waves from Compact Binaries using InterpolatedWaveforms, Phys. Rev. D 87, 122002 (2013).

R. J. E. Smith, I. Mandel and A. Vecchio: Studies ofwaveform requirements for intermediate mass-ratio coa-lescence searches with advanced detectors, Phys. Rev. D88, 044010 (2013).

C. M. F. Mingarelli, K. Grover, T. Sidery, R. J. E.Smith and A. Vecchio: Observing the Dynamics of

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Supermassive Black Hole Binaries with Pulsar TimingArrays, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 081104 (2012).

I am also coauthor of around 50 published articles writtenby the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, which I have omit-ted from this list for brevity. A full list of my publicationscan be found on Google Scholar: https://scholar.

google.com/citations?user=db687GsAAAAJ&hl=en

Presentations

2015 R. J. E. Smith, Precessing-Spin ROMs for CBC dataanalysis, LVC meeting, California Institute of Technolo-gy.

2014 R. J. E. Smith, Modeling higher-order Hermite-Gaussmode scattering: A practical implementation, LIGO se-minar, California Institute of Technology.

2013 R. J. E. Smith, Coalescing compact binary parameterestimation in the advanced detector era, LIGO seminar,California Institute of Technology.

2012 R. J. E. Smith, I. Mandel and A. Vecchio, Studies of wa-veform requirements for intermediate mass-ratio inspiralsearches with advanced detectors, LVC meeting, SapienzaUniversita di Roma.

2012 R. J. E. Smith, K. Cannon, C. Hanna, D. Keppel andI. Mandel, CBC parameter estimation with interpolatedwaveforms, LVC meeting, Sapienza Universita di Roma.

2012 R. J. E. Smith, Prospects and challenges for gravitational-wave astronomy with advanced detectors (Seminar), Insti-tute for Theory and Computation, Harvard University.

2011 R. J. E. Smith, R. Sturani, A. Vecchio and J. Veitchfor the NINJA collaboration Parameter estimation withfully spinning inspiral, merger and ring-down waveforms,NRDA, University of Cardiff.

2011 C. M. F. Mingarelli, K. Grover, T. Sidery, R. J. E.Smith, A. Vecchio Detecting the spin orbit precessionof a super massive black hole binary using Pulsar TimingArrays, Amaldi 9, University of Cardiff.

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2011 R. Sturani and R. J. E. Smith, Satus of spinning wa-veforms with merger and ring-down (PhenSpin) withinihope and InspNest analysis, LVC meeting, CaliforniaInstitute of Technology.

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