Daniel Joseph Oliver

NANOGrav Physics Frontiers Center Postdoctoral Fellow at Oregon State University

Curriculum Vitae

A summary of my appointments, education, research, publications, talks, and service. The full, up-to-date document is also available as a PDF.

Current Position

NANOGrav Physics Frontiers Center Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR · September 2024 – Present
Advisors: Dr. Jeffrey Hazboun & Dr. Xavier Siemens

Research on pulsar timing array (PTA) datasets, spanning pulsar timing, noise modeling, and gravitational wave detection. Developing analytical methodology for PTA sensitivity to anisotropic gravitational wave backgrounds and customized chromatic noise modeling for NANOGrav datasets. Contributing to International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA) data combination and mentoring graduate students in PTA and LISA topics.

Education

Ph.D., Space & Planetary Sciences (concentration: Gravitational Wave Astrophysics)
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR · May 2024
Dissertation: The Gravitational Wave Peep — Improved Modeling of Highly Eccentric EMRIs for LISA Signal Confusion Noise

B.S., Physics (minor: Philosophy)
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK · May 2017
Thesis: Slow Noise in a Laser with Injected Signal

Research Focus

  • PTA Anisotropic Sensitivity. Analytical derivation and implementation of pulsar timing array sensitivity to anisotropic gravitational wave backgrounds, integrated into existing PTA analysis tools.
  • PTA Customized Chromatic Noise. New pulsar timing methodologies to model chromatic effects and improve noise characterization in NANOGrav datasets.
  • LISA Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals. Modeling the gravitational wave background from highly eccentric EMRIs (“peeps”) and its impact on LISA signal confusion noise.

For figures and longer summaries see the Research page.

Selected Publications

Selected first-author and lead-contribution papers; see the Publications page for the complete list.

The NANOGrav 12.5-year Data Set: Chromatic Noise Characterization & Mitigation with Time-Domain Kernels.
J. S. Hazboun, J. Simon, B. Larsen, J. Baier, D. J. Oliver, et al. · The Astrophysical Journal (2026) · arXiv:2511.22597

Gravitational Wave Peep Contributions to Background Signal Confusion Noise for LISA.
D. J. Oliver, A. D. Johnson, L. Janssen, J. Berrier, K. Glampedakis, D. Kennefick · Physical Review D (2026) · arXiv:2507.19704

Gravitational Wave Peeps from EMRIs and their Implication for LISA Signal Confusion Noise.
D. J. Oliver, A. D. Johnson, J. Berrier, K. Glampedakis, D. Kennefick · Classical and Quantum Gravity (2024) · arXiv:2305.05793

Invited Talks

JPL SVCP Astrophysics Luncheon Seminar, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory · September 2025
“Gravitational Wave Peep Contributions to Background Signal Confusion Noise for LISA”

LIGO Seminar, California Institute of Technology · June 2023
“Gravitational Wave Peeps and Their Implication for LISA Data Analysis”

Mentoring

Katelyn Glasby, Ph.D. student, Oregon State University (2024–present) · Orphan Memory Rates for MBHBHs in LISA.

Harry O’Mara, Ph.D. student, University of Arkansas (2024–present) · Decomposition of Overlapping Galactic Binaries in LISA Data.