Samuel Ward,
Computational Astrophysicist

I enjoy playing a range of team sports — including rugby and rowing earlier in life — and now mostly focus on volleyball. While at ESO, I helped organise the institute volleyball team, coaching weekly training sessions and captaining the side in tournaments against other research institutes at the Atomiade Summer Games in Grenoble (2022) and Berlin (2023). These days I spend my Tuesday evenings playing in a co-ed recreational league in New York City — we recently won a Santa-themed tournament.

Having sung as a choral scholar at St John's College Chapel Choir, Durham, music has remained a constant alongside my research. During my PhD I co-founded and co-directed a choir at ESO, bringing together members of all singing abilities. Our inaugural concert featured music as varied as music from Lord of the Rings, a Purcell opera movement, and a traditional South African folk song. Since moving to New York, I sing bass with the Greenwich Village Chamber Singers, with whom I recently performed in a sold-out concert of Bach's St Matthew Passion.

After a long week of science, there's nothing better than a fresh lungful of air in the mountains. When I lived in Munich, I frequently organised "beginner-achievable" hiking trips for the other students (enjoyable even when they tipped into Type II fun!) Now I'm in New York, I can hop on a train up the Hudson Valley to hike in the Catskills or visit cute upstate towns (where I tried Root Beer for the first time!).

Center for Computational Astrophysics
Flatiron Institute
162 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

Email: sward@flatironinstitute.org
Website: samuelrward.github.io
Publications: ADS listing
ORCiD: 0000-0001-5345-0900