Peter McGill is a Research Scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) working on a broad range of astronomy topics at the intersection of new statistical techniques, large astronomical datasets, and high-performance computing. He is a science team contributor for the NASA Pandora Small Satellite mission and serves as a member of the astrometry working group for the Roman Galactic Exoplanet Survey Project Infrastructure Team. Prior to joining LLNL, Peter held a postdoctoral position at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he worked on scalable transient survey infrastructure. He received his PhD in Astronomy from the University of Cambridge and an MSci in Theoretical Physics from University College London.

Research Appointments

2024-present, Research Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
2023-2024, Postdoctoral Researcher, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
2021-2023, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California, Santa Cruz

Research Interests

• Microlensing as probe of compact objects
• Time-series inference methods
• Transient surveys
• Approximate Bayesian computation
• Exoplanet Atmospheres

Selected Press

• For the First Time Hubble Directly Measures Mass of a Lone White Dwarf, NASA & ESA,  February 2023
• Astronomers observe light bending around an isolated white dwarf, University of Cambridge, February 2023
• Einstein's Mind-Bending Theory Helps Scientists Analyze a Dead Star, CNET,  February 2023
• NASA scientists 'weigh' a white dwarf for the first time using a space-time trick predicted by Einstein, yahoo, February 2023
• Weighing up a white wanderer, Nature Astronomy Research Highlights, March 2023
• Shedding Light on White Dwarfs, ESA, May 2019

Previous Student Supervision

Students with overlapping research interests are encouraged to reach out for details of future internship opportunities.

Lila Braff, DSSI internship on Asteroids, LLNL, 05/2025-08/2025
Lana Tilke, NNSA summer fellowship on exoplanet atmospheres, LLNL, 05/2025-08/2025
Yoav Rotman, internship on the Pandora SmallSat Mission, LLNL, 04/2025-09/2025
Zofia Kaczmarek, DSSI internship on microlensing Bback holes, LLNL, 05/2024-08/2024
Abby Halasi-Kun, internship microlensing neutron stars, LLNL, 05/2024-06/2024
James Fardeen, Post-bachelor internship on primordial black holes, LLNL, 06/2023-12/2023

Ph.D, Astronomy, University of Cambridge, UK, 2022

MSci, Theoretical Physics, University College London, UK, 2017

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