John Wise

CRA Director and Professor of Physics

  • Ph.D. in Physics, Stanford University (2007)
  • B.S. in Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology (2001)

(2-page CV – PDF, last updated September 2025)

Teaching

  • Teaching Philosophy
  • Intro Physics II (PHYS 2212): Fall 2022, Fall 2020, Fall 2014, Spring 2013, Fall 2011
  • Honors Physics II (PHYS 2232): Fall 2018, Fall 2017, Fall 2016
  • Computational Physics (PHYS 3120): Spring 2025, Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2017
  • Fundamentals of Astrophysics (PHYS 4347): Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014, Fall 2012
  • Computational Physics (PHYS 6260): Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021
  • Cosmology & Galaxy Formation (PHYS 7127): Fall 2025, Fall 2023, Fall 2021, Fall 2019, Fall 2017, Fall 2015, Fall 2013

Brief Bio

Professor John Wise uses numerical simulations to study the formation and evolution of galaxies and their black holes. He is one of the lead developers of the community-driven, open-source astrophysics code Enzo and has vast experience running state-of-the-art simulations on the world’s largest supercomputers. He received his B.S. in Physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2001. He then studied at Stanford University, where he received his Ph.D. in Physics in 2007. He went on to work at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center just outside of Washington, DC as a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow. Then in 2009, he was awarded the prestigious Hubble Fellowship which he took to Princeton University before arriving at Georgia Tech in 2011, coming back home after ten years roaming the nation.  Professor Wise obtained tenure in 2016 and was promoted to Full Professor in 2021.  He was appointed the Director of the Center for Relativistic Astrophysics in 2022, where he leads the 11 astrophysics faculty in the School of Physics, 12 PhD researchers, and approximately 40 graduate students.

NOTE (September 2025): My research group is currently full. I will not be accepting any new graduate students for the next few years, unless independently funded, like the NSF GRFP. For undergrads, I accept applications (link to be posted in Feb-Mar) for researchers in the late Spring, who start in the Fall.

Recent Publications (updated September 2025)
(Publication list from NASA ADS, arXiv, and Google Scholar)

  1. Mead, J., Brauer, K., Bryan, G. L., Mac Low, M.-M., Ji, A. P., Wise, J. H., Andersson, E. P., Frebel, A., Emerick, A., & Côté, B., 2025, “Aeos is Mixing it Up: The (In)homogeneity of Metal Mixing Following Population III Star Formation”, submitted to Astrophysics Journal

  2. McCaffrey, J., Hardin, S., Wise, J. H., & Regan, J. A., 2025, “Beyond No Tension: JWST z > 10 Galaxies Push Simulations to the Limit”, submitted to Open Journal for Astrophysics

  3. O’Brennan, H., Regan, J. A., Brennan, J., McCaffrey, J., Wise, J. H., Visbal, E., Trinca, A., & Norman, M. L., 2025, “Predicting the number density of heavy seed massive black holes due to an intense Lyman-Werner field”, OJAp, 8, 88

  4. Mone, E., Pries, B., Wise, J. H., & Ferrans, S., 2025, “Beyond the Goldilocks Zone: Identifying Critical Features in Massive Black Hole Formation”, ApJ, 982, 39

  5. Brauer, K., Mead, J., Wise, J. H., Bryan, G. L., Mac Low, M.-M., Ji, A. P., Emerick, A., Andersson, E. P., Frebel, A., & Côté, B., 2025, “Aeos: The Impact of Pop III Initial Mass Function and Star-by-Star Models in Galaxy Simulations”, ApJ, in press

  6. Mead, J., Brauer, K., Bryan, G. L., Mac Low, M.-M., Ji, A. P., Wise, J. H., Emerick, A., Andersson, E. P., Frebel, A., & Côté, B., 2025, “AEOS: Transport of Metals from Minihalos following Population III Stellar Feedback”, ApJ, 980, 62

     

Contact Info

  • email: jwise // at // gatech.edu
  • phone: 404/894-5208
  • fax: 404/894-9958
  • office: 1-90D Boggs
  • address: School of Physics, 837 State Street, Atlanta, GA 30332-0430