Science Week Programme

22–26 June 2026 | Alpine Heath Resort, Drakensberg

Switch to Outline Programme

Sunday, 21 June — Arrival Day

15:00–15:30 Delegates from Potchefstroom arrive at Alpine Heath and check in

15:30–17:00 Conference Registration (Early option)

16:00–17:00 Delegates from O.R. Tambo arrive and check in

17:30 Welcome Drinks — Village Square

18:30 Dinner — conference buffet in the main restaurant

20:00–20:30 Last shuttle arrives at venue

Monday, 22 June

07:00 Breakfast opens

07:30–08:50 Conference Registration

09:00–09:15 Welcome and Introductory Remarks — Sarah Buchner

09:15–09:20 Announcements

Session 1: PTA Updates

09:20–11:00 · Chair: Jaikhomba Singha

09:20–09:33	Marisa Geyer	APT Status Update
09:33–09:46	Siyuan Chen	CPTA Status Update
09:46–09:59	Irene Ferranti	EPTA Status Update
09:59–10:12	Abhimanyu Susobhanan	InPTA Status Update
10:12–10:25	Sarah Vigeland	NANOGrav Status Update
10:25–10:38	Daniel Reardon	PPTA Status Update
10:38–10:51	Ryan Shannon	MPTA Status Update

11:00–11:30 Break

Session 2: PTA Updates + Pulsar Timing

11:30–13:00 · Chair: Graham Doskoch

11:30–11:50	Colin ClarkInvited	Updates on Gamma Ray PTA
11:50–12:03	Kuo Liu	IPTA Data Release 3 — status of the dataset
12:03–12:16	Deborah Good	Lessons Learned from IPTA DR3
12:16–12:29	Serena Valtolina	Combining radio and gamma-ray pulsar observations for PTA experiments
12:29–12:42	Abhimanyu Susobhanan	Advances in wideband pulsar timing methods
12:42–12:55	Sparrow Roch	The Parkes Young Pulsar Array as a Gravitational-Wave Control Sample

13:00–14:00 Lunch

Session 3: Pulsar Timing + Noise Analysis

14:00–15:30 · Chair: Deborah Good

14:00–14:20	Ryan ShannonInvited	The PTA Noise Analysis
14:20–14:33	Debabrata Deb	Customised Single-Pulsar Noise Characterisation in InPTA DR2 and Implications for PTA GW Searches
14:33–14:46	Valentina Di Marco	A transdimensional sampling framework for pulsar timing noise modelling
14:46–14:59	Thomas Abbott	Constraining Timing Noise Through Low Frequency Observations with the MeerKAT PTA
14:59–15:12	Alexander Saffer	Including Black-Widow Pulsars in PTAs
15:12–15:25	Sophia Sosa Fiscella	Pulsar Timing meets VLBI: The Quest for Improved Pulsar Astrometry

15:30–16:00 Break

16:00–16:30 PTA Early Career Scientists Working Group

16:30–17:30 Poster Viewing (in Arbousset)

17:30 Building a Bridge Challenge

18:30 Dinner

Tuesday, 23 June

07:00 Breakfast opens

09:25–09:30 Announcements

Session 4: ISM + Profile Variability

09:30–11:00 · Chair: Daniel Reardon

09:30–09:43	Graham Doskoch	A Search for Chromatic Transient Events in IPTA DR3
09:43–09:56	Hendrik Combrinck	Dispersion Measure Modelling and Characterisation of the MPTA
09:56–10:09	Saurav Mishra	Interplanetary scintillation-informed heliospheric modelling for the MPTA 4.5 yr dataset
10:09–10:22	Selah Melfor	Probing the turbulence in the ionized ISM with long-term DM and RM variations of young pulsars
10:22–10:35	Matthew Bartnik	Using CHIME Dispersion Measure Data as Priors on NANOGrav Data
10:35–10:48	Xiaosong Hu	Searching for Non-Stationary Noise in PPTA-DR3

11:00–11:30 Break

Session 5: GW Analysis & Detection

11:30–12:42 · Chair: Abhimanyu Susobhanan

11:30–11:50	Alberto Roper PolInvited	Cosmological Background Interpretation of PTA data
11:50–12:03	Gosia Curylo	A comprehensive framework for phase-coherent mapping of the gravitational wave sky
12:03–12:16	Riccardo Truant	Hierarchical Models for Pulsar Noise Processes: Mitigating Posterior Bias in GW Searches
12:16–12:29	Pratyasha Gitika	Search for burst with memory in the MPTA 4.5 year dataset
12:29–12:42	Patrick Meyers	The latest updates to the Discovery PTA software package

12:45 Conference Photo

13:00–14:00 Lunch

Session 6: GW Analysis & Detection

14:00–15:30 · Chair: Riccardo Truant

14:00–14:20	Jonathan GairInvited	Latest news on the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
14:20–14:33	Kathrin Grunthal	Nanohertz GW detection using pulsar timing phases
14:33–14:46	Ryosuke Fujimoto	Skewness in the Hellings-Downs curve
14:46–14:59	Beatrice Eleonora Moreschi	Modeling the nHz gravitational wave background with t-process
14:59–15:12	Wang-Wei Yu	Stochastic gravitational-wave background search using data from five pulsar timing arrays
15:12–15:25	Leith Benali	Random Forest Classification of Gravitational Wave Background Sources in Pulsar Timing Models

15:30–16:00 Break

16:00–17:30 IPTA DR3: DC, NA and GWA IPTA members only

18:30 Boma Dinner

Wednesday, 24 June

07:00 Breakfast opens

09:15–09:20 Announcements

Session 7: ISM + Profile Variability

09:20–11:00 · Chair: Prerna Rana

09:20–09:33	Shania Nichols	Timing Through Pulse Shape Variability in PSR J1713+0747
09:33–09:46	Anala Kavumkandathil Sreekumar	NANOGrav 15yr dataset: DM Structure Function Analysis
09:46–09:59	Rami Mandow	Profile-Change Events in Millisecond Pulsars: A PPTA Population Study
09:59–10:12	Sai Chaitanya Susarla	Modelling frequency evolution using machine learning methods
10:12–10:25	Ross Jennings	Modeling Recovery of Interstellar Scattering Using Cyclic Spectroscopy
10:25–10:38	Ashley Martsen-Poulin	Profile Variability in the NANOGrav 15 Year Dataset
10:38–10:51	Lydia Guertin	Prospects (and Successes) of Probing the Multiphase Interstellar Medium with Pulsar Timing Arrays

11:00–11:30 Break

Session 8: Non-PTA Science

11:30–13:00 · Chair: Marisa Geyer

11:30–11:50	Paulo FreireInvited	Future of Gravity Experiments with Pulsars
11:50–12:03	Jaikhomba Singha	The highly relativistic double neutron star system, PSR J1757-1854: detection of orbital deformation with improved timing
12:03–12:16	Jyotijwal Debnath	Light Bending Under General Relativity: A Study of Pulsar-Black Hole Binaries
12:16–12:29	Jeandrew Brink	Resonant Pacemakers — Heartthrob of Sgr A* emission
12:29–12:42	Adya Shukla	Constraining the proposed hierarchical triple scenario for the eccentric MSP binary PSR J1618-3921
12:42–12:55	Jackson Taylor	Using Pulsars as Accelerometers to Search for Exotic Objects

13:00 Lunch & Free Afternoon

18:30 Dinner

Thursday, 25 June

07:00 Breakfast opens

09:25–09:30 Announcements

Session 9: Continuous Gravitational Waves

09:30–11:00 · Chair: Sparrow Roch

09:30–09:43	Anna Tsai	Reaching diffraction-limited localization with coherent PTAs
09:43–09:56	Siyuan Chen	Searching for continuous gravitational waves with the SHAPES method
09:56–10:09	Bjorn Larsen	Leveraging cross-correlations in continuous wave searches
10:09–10:22	Nikita Agarwal	Broad Frequency Targeted Continuous Wave Search with the NANOGrav 15 Year Dataset
10:22–10:35	Irene Ferranti	Searching for resolvable Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in PTA Data with Discovery
10:35–10:48	Anjana Ashok	It's Not a Signal, It's Just J1713: Robust CW Detection in Pulsar Timing Arrays

11:00–11:30 Break

Session 10: Continuous Gravitational Waves

11:30–13:00 · Chair: Nikita Agarwal

11:30–11:50	Bence BecsyInvited	Beyond the Background: Resolving Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries with PTAs
11:50–12:03	Ludovica Carbone	Pinpointing PTA Single Sources: Sequential SBI for Sky Localization
12:03–12:16	Vidit Singh	Incorporating Post-Newtonian Accurate GW Emission Effects in PTA Signals from Individual SMBHBs
12:16–12:29	Sara Manzini	Eccentric binaries in PTA data: parameter estimation and interplay with the GW background
12:29–12:42	Xiaoming Bi	A forecast on the observation of discreteness in the nanohertz GW background
12:42–12:55	Jacob Cardinal Tremblay	Multi-Messenger Searches for Supermassive Black Hole Binaries

13:00–14:00 Lunch

Session 11: Astrophysical Interpretation

14:00–15:30 · Chair: Bjorn Larsen

14:00–14:20	Chiara MingarelliInvited	Astrophysical Interpretations of PTA datasets
14:20–14:33	Jordan O'Kelley	BOBCat: A Catalog of Modeled SMBHBs
14:33–14:46	Niccolò Veronesi	Counting and Ranking the hosts of realistic PTA resolved sources
14:46–14:59	Lutendo Nyadzani	Testing VLBI-Identified Supermassive Black Hole Binaries Against Pulsar Timing Array Constraints
14:59–15:12	Avinash K. Paladi	Constraining Orbital Eccentricity of a Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidate PKS 2131-021
15:12–15:25	Sharon Mary Tomson	Hierarchical Inference of the SMBHB Merger Rate from Individual Merger Searches in PTA data

15:30–16:00 Break

16:00–16:30 IPTA DR3: CGWs, Astrophysical interpretation and New Physics IPTA members only

19:00 Gala Dinner

Friday, 26 June

07:00 Breakfast opens

09:15–09:20 Announcements

Session 12: Non-PTA Science

09:20–11:00 · Chair: David Nice

09:20–09:33	Ramesh Bhat	Millisecond pulsar census and discoveries from the SMART survey
09:33–09:46	Venu Prayag	Searching for and characterising pulsars in the Large Magellanic Cloud using MeerKAT
09:46–09:59	Denisha Pillay	Latest discoveries from the MPIfR-MeerKAT Galactic Plane Survey
09:59–10:12	Reynier Squillace	Early Results from the CHIME All-sky Multiday Pulsar Stacking Search
10:12–10:25	Patrick O'Neill	An ultra-wideband census of giant pulse emitters
10:25–10:38	Abigail Thambiran	Analysing the mode-changing radio pulsar, PSR J1748–2021A, using MeerKAT data
10:38–10:51	Natalia Lewandowska	High time resolution study of single radio pulses from the Crab Pulsar over three frequency ranges

11:00–11:30 Break

Session 13: New Physics & Future Methods

11:30–13:00 · Chair: Niccolo Veronesi

11:30–11:50	Fernando CamiloInvited	Future with MeerKAT(+) and transition into SKA-Mid
11:50–12:03	Michael Sarkis	Dark matter signals in pulsar polarisation data
12:03–12:16	Atiqur Rahman	Searching alternative polarisation modes of Gravitational Wave Background in the MPTA dataset
12:16–12:29	Arian von Blanckenburg	Evaluating the optimal Hellings and Downs reconstruction
12:29–12:42	Kazuya Furusawa	Efficient Separation of Individual Signals and Stochastic Backgrounds in future PTAs
12:42–12:55	Yirong Wen	FastLUT: An Accelerated General Framework for Deterministic-Waveform Nanohertz GW Searches with PTAs

13:00–14:00 Lunch

14:00–14:30 IPTA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Session

14:30–15:30 Future of IPTA IPTA members only

15:30 Conference closes

18:30 Dinner

Saturday, 27 June — Departure Day

07:00 Breakfast opens

08:00–09:00 All delegates check out after breakfast

10:00 Shuttle departs for O.R. Tambo