Dr. Jax Sanders

Dr. Jax SandersMarquette University

Wehr Physics Building, 311

MilwaukeeWI53201United States of America(414) 288-3650jax.sanders@marquette.edu

Assistant Professor

Physics

Jax Sanders grew up in Farmington Hills, MI. They have a B.A. in Physics and Mathematics from Kalamazoo College, and a M.S. and a Ph.D. in Physics from University of Michigan. They design subsystems for gravitational wave interferometers and work to design new detectors to expand the scope of the new field of gravitational wave astronomy.

They worked at LIGO Hanford Observatory as an Advanced LIGO commissioner, installing and characterizing the sensing and control systems that keep the complex optical system aligned. After getting their Ph.D. at University of Michigan, they worked at Syracuse University as a postdoc, where they became involved with conceptual design for future interferometers.

Jax has two interesting distinctions in their field: they’re the last person to publish a gravitational wave thesis that doesn’t mention the first detection of gravitational waves, and they’re the first person to get a tattoo of the GW150914 black hole inspiral signal(it’s on their left forearm, ask if you want to see it!). When they’re not doing physics, they enjoy fencing, art, Dungeons and Dragons, and video games - particularly platformers and RPGs!