Background: Zainab Mangi is a Fulbright Ph.D. student in RIT’s Astrophysical Sciences and Technology program, working with Dr. Richard O’Shaughnessy. She earned her B.S. and M.S. in Mathematics from Sukkur IBA University in Pakistan, where her master’s thesis focused on orbital dynamics in binary black holes.

I study how a binary black hole dynamics is affected by its environment, and how those environmental effects show up in the gravitational waves we observe. I am particularly interested in binary–single interactions, from chaotic close encounters to longer-term secular dynamics. My work combines numerical modeling and gravitational-wave data analysis to understand how different dynamical formation channels can leave observable imprints on gravitational-wave signals.
When I’m not doing research, I enjoy cooking, painting, and photography. I’m also passionate about teaching and mentoring in math and physics.

Research interests: gravitational-wave data analysis; black-hole dynamics; numerical relativity.
Contact: zm5442@g.rit.edu