$ man daniel-williams
Dr Daniel Williams
FRAS · MInstP
Research Fellow · Institute for Gravitational Research, University of Glasgow
I'm a gravitational-wave astronomer working to detect and characterise signals from colliding black holes and neutron stars using LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA. In 2025 I coordinated sixty researchers to produce GWTC-4.0 — the most comprehensive catalogue of gravitational-wave sources ever published, more than doubling the all-time total of known events. I build open-source tools for large-scale astrophysical analysis and chair the LSC's Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy in Gravitational Wave Astrophysics
University of Glasgow
Master in Science in Physics and Astronomy
University of Glasgow · Honours of the First Class
Career
Research Fellow
Institute for Gravitational Research, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow
Research Associate
Institute for Gravitational Research, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow
Research Assistant
Institute for Gravitational Research, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow
Visiting Scholar
Centre for Relativistic Astrophysics, Georgia Institute for Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
LIGO Scientific Collaboration Fellow
LIGO Livingston Observatory, LA, USA / California Institute of Technology
Graduate Teaching Assistant
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow
Leadership & community
LIGO Scientific Collaboration – Diversity Equity & Inclusion Committee Chair
GWTC-4.0 Paper Writing Team Editorial chair
University of Glasgow College of Science and Engineering – Research Concordat Working Group Member
University of Glasgow Research Strategy Committee Research staff representative
College of Science and Engineering PDRA Network President
LIGO Scientific Collaboration – Gravitational Wave Transients Catalogues Working Group Parameter Estimation Lead
LIGO Scientific Collaboration – Parameter Estimation Working Group Observing Run 4 Parameter Estimation Manager
GW Allies Chair
Professional memberships
International Astronomical Union
Society of Research Software Engineering
Royal Astronomical Society
Institute of Physics
LIGO Scientific Collaboration
Awards & recognition
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2024
LIGO/Virgo/Kagra CBC Award For outstanding contributions to the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA compact binary coalescence data-analysis group.
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2019
Wilton Poster Prize (Postdoc) NAM
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2017
STFC Long-term Attachment grant
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2016
University of Glasgow College of Science \& Engineering Science Writing Award
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2015
University of Glasgow Masters Project Presentation Award
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2014
Royal Astronomical Society Summer Studentship
In the media
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2025
IFL Science GW150914 10th Anniversary · online
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2025
Glasgow Herald GWTC-4.0 Announcement · print
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2025
Yahoo News GWTC-4.0 Announcement · online
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2025
BBC News Channel GW231123 Discovery Announcement · television
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2020
BBC Radio GW190521 Announcement · radio
Beyond the research
Bagging Munros
Scotland's 282 Munros — mountains above 3,000 feet — have become something of an obsession. With just 24 left to go I'm closing in on completion, and the mountains have taught me a great deal about patience, weather, and knowing when to turn back. Follow my progress in the hill log.
Running
I run races of various lengths — it's the best way I've found to clear my head. Past events are logged here, or follow along on Strava.
Bayesian rugby
The same hierarchical inference tools I use for gravitational waves turn out to be surprisingly effective at predicting international rugby. I've been running week-by-week Bayesian predictions through the Six Nations — follow the analysis on the blog.
Get in touch
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, G12 8QQ