Assistant Professor; Director of Graduate Admissions
Research Interests: High-precision observations of the endpoints of stars, planets, and binary systems; asteroseismology; time-domain astrophysics; space-based photometry; persistent gravitational wave sources.
Group Website: http://sites.bu.edu/buwd/
Professor JJ Hermes’ primary research interests converge on white dwarf stars, the final evolutionary state for more than 97 percent of all stars in our Galaxy. He uses pulsating and binary white dwarfs to determine fundamental parameters of these burnt-out stars. He also uses white dwarf stars as stable clocks that can test general relativity, reveal the presence of giant planets, and allow us to watch stellar evolution on human timescales.