Dr Alexander Burke
- Research Fellow (Physics & Astronomy)
email:
Ollie.Burke@glasgow.ac.uk
pronouns:
He/him/his
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-209XBiography
Research Fellow (Physics and Astronomy)
Room: 464
Phone: 0141 330 7168
I’m a gravitational wave astronomer who specialises in data analysis methods that are relevant for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). LISA is a space-based gravitational wave observatory designed to observe the most catastrophic compact objects hosted within our universe. Examples include: supermassive black holes, extreme mass-ratio inspirals, and compact object binaries (double white dwarfs, black holes, neutron stars) present within our own Milky Way.
I began my PhD at The University of Edinburgh in 2017 with Jonathan Gair. After two years, I moved to the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) where I finished my PhD in 2021. After a career break scuba diving around the UK, I moved to sunny Toulouse in 2022 in the south of France. The wine was excellent. In Toulouse, I focused on creating data analysis techniques to model systematic errors in extreme mass-ratio inspirals, address data gaps and other quirks of the LISA spacecraft (like glitches) and touched on gravitational lensing and cosmology. At the end of 2024, I started as a research associate with Professor Graham Woan, where I’m working on developing analysis techniques for the LISA UK ground segment such as creating prototype pipelines to process the instrumental data into data that’s ready for further analysis.
Publications
2026
Barsanti, Susanna, Burke, Ollie 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-209X, Maselli, Andrea, Sotiriou, Thomas P., Spiers, Andrew and Warburton, Niels
(2026)
The significance of first post-adiabatic contributions for scalar charge measurements with intermediate and extreme mass ratio inspirals.
arXiv,
(doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2607.09310)
Vajpeyi, Avi, Mentasti, Giorgio, Baghi, Quentin, Burke, Ollie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-209X and Speri, Lorenzo
(2026)
An explicit and differentiable Wilson-Daubechies-Meyer transform for gravitational-wave data analysis.
arXiv,
(doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2606.20269)
Boumerdassi, Amin, Edwards, Matthew C., Vajpeyi, Avi and Burke, Ollie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-209X
(2026)
First-time assessment of glitch-induced bias and uncertainty in inference of extreme mass ratio inspirals.
Physical Review D, 113(10),
104044.
(doi: 10.1103/9678-764y)
Baghi, Q. et al. (2026) LISA science ground segment conventions. arXiv, (doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2603.22377)
Speri, Lorenzo, Duque, Francisco, Barsanti, Susana, Santini, Alessandro, Kejriwal, Shubham, Burke, Ollie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-209X and Chapman-Bird, Christian A.E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2728-9612
(2026)
Quantifying the scientific potential of intermediate and extreme mass ratio inspirals with the laser interferometer space antenna.
arXiv,
(doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2603.17072)
Burke, Ollie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-209X, Muratore, Martina and Woan, Graham ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0381-0394
(2026)
Impact of missing data on the construction of LISA time-delay-interferometry Michelson variables.
Physical Review Applied, 25,
034041.
(doi: 10.1103/xpvf-syrw)
2025
Chapman-Bird, C. E.A. et al. (2025) Efficient waveforms for asymmetric-mass eccentric equatorial inspirals into rapidly spinning black holes. Physical Review D, 112(10), 104023. (doi: 10.1103/scbp-75pf)
Lynch, Philip and Burke, Ollie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-209X
(2025)
A note on the conversion of orbital angles for extreme mass ratio inspirals.
Classical and Quantum Gravity, 42(16),
167001.
(doi: 10.1088/1361-6382/adf02b)
Burke, Ollie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-209X, Marsat, Sylvain, Gair, Jonathan R. and Katz, Michael L.
(2025)
Addressing data gaps and assessing noise mismodeling in LISA.
Physical Review D, 111,
124053.
(doi: 10.1103/5jr8-k2ss)
2024
Burke, Ollie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-209X, Piovano, Gabriel Andres, Warburton, Niels, Lynch, Philip, Speri, Lorenzo, Kavanagh, Chris, Wardell, Barry, Pound, Adam, Durkan, Leanne and Miller, Jeremy
(2024)
Assessing the importance of first postadiabatic terms for small-mass-ratio binaries.
Physical Review D, 109(12),
124048.
(doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.109.124048)
2021
Antonelli, Andrea, Burke, Ollie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-209X and Gair, Jonathan R.
(2021)
Noisy neighbours: inference biases from overlapping gravitational-wave signals.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 507(4),
pp. 5069-5086.
(doi: 10.1093/mnras/stab2358)
Articles
Barsanti, Susanna, Burke, Ollie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-209X, Maselli, Andrea, Sotiriou, Thomas P., Spiers, Andrew and Warburton, Niels
(2026)
The significance of first post-adiabatic contributions for scalar charge measurements with intermediate and extreme mass ratio inspirals.
arXiv,
(doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2607.09310)
Vajpeyi, Avi, Mentasti, Giorgio, Baghi, Quentin, Burke, Ollie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-209X and Speri, Lorenzo
(2026)
An explicit and differentiable Wilson-Daubechies-Meyer transform for gravitational-wave data analysis.
arXiv,
(doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2606.20269)
Boumerdassi, Amin, Edwards, Matthew C., Vajpeyi, Avi and Burke, Ollie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-209X
(2026)
First-time assessment of glitch-induced bias and uncertainty in inference of extreme mass ratio inspirals.
Physical Review D, 113(10),
104044.
(doi: 10.1103/9678-764y)
Baghi, Q. et al. (2026) LISA science ground segment conventions. arXiv, (doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2603.22377)
Speri, Lorenzo, Duque, Francisco, Barsanti, Susana, Santini, Alessandro, Kejriwal, Shubham, Burke, Ollie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-209X and Chapman-Bird, Christian A.E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2728-9612
(2026)
Quantifying the scientific potential of intermediate and extreme mass ratio inspirals with the laser interferometer space antenna.
arXiv,
(doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2603.17072)
Burke, Ollie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-209X, Muratore, Martina and Woan, Graham ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0381-0394
(2026)
Impact of missing data on the construction of LISA time-delay-interferometry Michelson variables.
Physical Review Applied, 25,
034041.
(doi: 10.1103/xpvf-syrw)
Chapman-Bird, C. E.A. et al. (2025) Efficient waveforms for asymmetric-mass eccentric equatorial inspirals into rapidly spinning black holes. Physical Review D, 112(10), 104023. (doi: 10.1103/scbp-75pf)
Lynch, Philip and Burke, Ollie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-209X
(2025)
A note on the conversion of orbital angles for extreme mass ratio inspirals.
Classical and Quantum Gravity, 42(16),
167001.
(doi: 10.1088/1361-6382/adf02b)
Burke, Ollie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-209X, Marsat, Sylvain, Gair, Jonathan R. and Katz, Michael L.
(2025)
Addressing data gaps and assessing noise mismodeling in LISA.
Physical Review D, 111,
124053.
(doi: 10.1103/5jr8-k2ss)
Burke, Ollie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-209X, Piovano, Gabriel Andres, Warburton, Niels, Lynch, Philip, Speri, Lorenzo, Kavanagh, Chris, Wardell, Barry, Pound, Adam, Durkan, Leanne and Miller, Jeremy
(2024)
Assessing the importance of first postadiabatic terms for small-mass-ratio binaries.
Physical Review D, 109(12),
124048.
(doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.109.124048)
Antonelli, Andrea, Burke, Ollie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2393-209X and Gair, Jonathan R.
(2021)
Noisy neighbours: inference biases from overlapping gravitational-wave signals.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 507(4),
pp. 5069-5086.
(doi: 10.1093/mnras/stab2358)
Prior publications
Article
Manuel Piarulli, Riccardo Buscicchio, Federico Pozzoli, Ollie Burke, Matteo Bonetti, Alberto Sesana (2025) Test for LISA foreground Gaussianity and stationarity: Extreme mass-ratio inspirals Physical Review D Crossref. (doi: 10.1103/nfn4-pgr5)
Ruiting Mao, Jeong Eun Lee, Ollie Burke, Alvin J. K. Chua, Matthew C. Edwards, Renate Meyer (2024) Calibrating approximate Bayesian credible intervals of gravitational-wave parameters Physical Review D Crossref. (doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.109.083002)
Martina Toscani, Ollie Burke, Chang Liu, Nour Bou Zamel, Nicola Tamanini, Federico Pozzoli (2024) Strongly lensed extreme mass-ratio inspirals Physical Review D Ollie Burke. ISSN 2470-0029 (doi: 10.1103/physrevd.109.063505)
Riccardo Barbieri, Stefano Savastano, Lorenzo Speri, Andrea Antonelli, Laura Sberna, Ollie Burke, Jonathan Gair, Nicola Tamanini (2023) Constraining the evolution of Newton’s constant with slow inspirals observed from spaceborne gravitational-wave detectors Physical Review D Ollie Burke. ISSN 2470-0029 (doi: 10.1103/physrevd.107.064073)
Ollie Burke, Jonathan R. Gair, Joan Simón, Matthew C. Edwards (2020) Constraining the spin parameter of near-extremal black holes using LISA Physical Review D Crossref. (doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.102.124054)
Ollie Burke, Jonathan Gair, Joan Simón (2020) Transition from inspiral to plunge: A complete near-extremal trajectory and associated waveform Physical Review D Ollie Burke. ISSN 2470-0029 (doi: 10.1103/physrevd.101.064026)
Thesis
Alexander Iain Burke, Ollie Burke (2021) Extreme precision and extreme complexity: source modelling and data analysis development for the laser interferometer space antenna Ollie Burke. (doi: 10.7488/ERA/1637)
Supervision
I’m have a keen interest in supervising master’s students, many of whom have gone on to pursue academic careers. Possible projects could involve signal processing, Bayesian inference, waveform modelling for extreme mass-ratio inspirals and figuring out how to handle data irregularities (like glitches, gaps and time-based drifts in stochastic processes). If you’re a master’s student and are interested in any of these projects, please get in touch. I’m always happy to chat more about these topics.