The Gravitational Wave International Committee and the Friends of Stefano Braccini award a yearly prize recognizing an outstanding Ph.D. thesis in the field of gravitational waves, the GWIC-Braccini Thesis Prize. Theses are judged on 1) originality and creativity of the research, 2) importance to the field of gravitational waves and gravitational wave detection, broadly interpreted, and 3) clarity of presentation.
This year’s prize was awarded to Mark Ho-Yeuk Cheung’ thesis “Testing general relativity and informing astrophysics with gravitational waves” with the following citation: For pioneering studies of black-hole ringdown and gravitational-wave astrophysics that strengthen our ability to test gravity with gravitational-wave observations. This year’s prize is shared with Serena Valtolina (U. Hannover) for the thesis “From theory to inference: new methods for probing the nanohertz gravitational-wave sky with pulsar timing arrays”, with the following citation: For pioneering advances in pulsar timing array science that expand our ability to detect, characterize, and interpret the nanohertz gravitational-wave Universe.
Mark was also selected as one of the three finalists for the American Physical Society’s 2026 Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Dissertation Award in Astrophysics.
He was awarded (and declined) a Hubble Fellowship, and he is now a postdoc at the IAS in Princeton.
Congratulations, Mark!
