Grant Tremblay

Tremblay was born in Brunswick, Maine, and graduated from Brunswick High School in 2002. His interest in astronomy and astrophysics was triggered by the 1994 Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 impact of Jupiter, and by using a small telescope in his backyard while growing up in Maine.{{Cite journal |last1=Cortese |first1=L. |last2=Tremblay |first2=G. |date=2013-03-01 |title=Fellows at ESO |bibcode=2013Msngr.151...63C |journal=The Messenger |volume=151 |pages=63–64 }} He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Rochester in 2006, and received his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Astrophysics from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2011,{{Cite web |title=Ph.D. in astrophysical sciences and technology—Grant Tremblay |url=https://www.rit.edu/news/phd-astrophysical-sciences-and-technology-grant-tremblay |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=RIT |language=en}} where his thesis work was conducted in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute. His Doctoral advisors were Stefi Baum and Christopher O'Dea, and his Ph.D. Thesis was titled "Feedback Regulated Star Formation in Cool Core Clusters of Galaxies".Tremblay, Grant, "Feedback regulated star formation in cool core clusters of galaxies" (2011). Thesis. Rochester Institute of Technology. Accessed from https://scholarworks.rit.edu/theses/42

File:Grant Tremblay at the White House.jpg of the White House, September 2024]]

Following receipt of his doctoral degree, Tremblay was a European Southern Observatory (ESO) Fellow in Garching, Germany and an Astronomer at ESO's Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert of Chile (from 2011 through 2014). He was then a NASA Einstein Fellow at Yale University, working with Meg Urry.

In 2016, Tremblay and collaborators published a paper in the journal Nature reporting Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observations of cold molecular gas clouds falling toward a supermassive black hole in the brightest cluster galaxy of Abell 2597, a well known cool core cluster of galaxies.{{cite journal |last1=Tremblay |first1=Grant R. |last2=Oonk |first2=J. B. Raymond |last3=Combes |first3=Françoise |last4=Salomé |first4=Philippe |last5=O’Dea |first5=Christopher P. |last6=Baum |first6=Stefi A. |last7=Voit |first7=G. Mark |last8=Donahue |first8=Megan |last9=McNamara |first9=Brian R. |last10=Davis |first10=Timothy A. |last11=McDonald |first11=Michael A. |last12=Edge |first12=Alastair C. |last13=Clarke |first13=Tracy E. |last14=Galván-Madrid |first14=Roberto |last15=Bremer |first15=Malcolm N. |last16=Edwards |first16=Louise O. V. |last17=Fabian |first17=Andrew C. |last18=Hamer |first18=Stephen |last19=Li |first19=Yuan |last20=Maury |first20=Anaëlle |last21=Russell |first21=Helen R. |last22=Quillen |first22=Alice C. |last23=Urry |first23=C. Megan |last24=Sanders |first24=Jeremy S. |last25=Wise |first25=Michael W. |title=Cold, clumpy accretion onto an active supermassive black hole |journal=Nature |date=9 June 2016 |volume=534 |issue=7606 |pages=218–221 |doi=10.1038/nature17969 |pmid=27279215 |arxiv=1606.02304 |bibcode=2016Natur.534..218T |s2cid=205249079 }} The result received widespread media coverage.{{Cite news |title=Scientists catch a black hole in an unusual feeding frenzy |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/06/09/scientists-catch-a-black-hole-in-an-unusual-feeding-frenzy/ |access-date=2022-12-29 }} Tremblay was also involved in the discovery of a possible runaway black hole{{Citation |title=NASA finds runaway supermassive black hole in space {{!}} CNN Business |date=2023-04-07 |url=https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2023/04/07/nasa-hubble-telescope-black-hole-foreman-cprog-nc-vpx.cnn |access-date=2023-11-25 |language=en}} as well as the oldest black hole ever discovered.{{Cite news |last=Achenbach |first=Joel |date=2023-11-13 |title=Oldest black hole found, and it may solve a cosmic mystery |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2023/11/06/oldest-black-hole-jwst-chandra/ |access-date=2023-11-25 |issn=0190-8286}}

As of 2023, Tremblay works at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, where he is the head of the Lynx X-ray Observatory science support office and supports flight operations for the Chandra X-ray Observatory. In 2021, he was elected vice president of the American Astronomical Society (for a 2022–2025 term). He is also a special government employee advising NASA's Astrophysics Division as part of the [https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/nac/science-advisory-committees/apac NASA Astrophysics Advisory Committee].

Tremblay is an author on more than 100 peer-reviewed publications in academic journals such as The Astrophysical Journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Nature, and Astronomy & Astrophysics, and he frequently collaborates with astronomers such as Françoise Combes, Andrew Fabian, and Megan Donahue.

Selected publications include:

• {{Cite Q|Q54525466}}
• {{Cite Q|Q57337395|doi-access=free}}
• {{Cite Q|Q56914248}}
• {{Cite Q|Q56914870}}
• {{Cite Q|Q58831014|doi-access=free}}
• {{Cite Q|Q56914524}}

Tremblay is also involved in science communication and outreach. He is the author of two books for the general public (Light from the Void: Twenty Years of Discovery with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and What do Black Holes Eat for Dinner?.), and has appeared as a cast member on various documentary series about space and the universe, including Discovery and Science Channel's How the Universe Works, Space's Deepest Secrets, and Nova.

Tremblay lives in Newton, Massachusetts, with his wife and three children.

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Category:NASA astrophysicists

Category:American astrophysicists

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American scientists

Category:Fellows of the American Astronomical Society

Category:Rochester Institute of Technology alumni

Category:1984 births