About Me

Education: The Pennsylvania State University: University Park, BS in Astrophysics with a minor in Philosophy

Research Interests: Observational Astronomy, Computational Astrophysics, High Energy Astrophysics

Research

Seeding Supermassive Blackholes: The formation of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) is a key open problem in galaxy evolution, with light and heavy seeding models predicting distinct black hole occupation fractions (BHOFs). We use multiwavelength observations from the LSST Deep Drilling Fields to measure the AGN occupation fraction and estimate the BHOF at z < 1. By applying a hierarchical Bayesian model, we find that the corrected AGN fraction peaks near 10^11M⊙ and declines at lower masses, favoring heavy seed scenarios for massive galaxies. These results provide new observational constraints on SMBH seeding and highlight the value of combining deep extragalactic surveys with probabilistic modeling.

Publications: Kallan Berglund, Martin Bojowald, Manuel Diaz, and Gianni Sims, Quasiclassical Solutions for Static Quantum Black Holes January 2024

Media and Public Engagement: Sims, G. (2025). Featured in Black Space Week: Black In Astro community feature. Nature Astronomy. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02581-z (June 2025)

Photo Creds: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman, 2020

Community

Teaching: General Physics Lab 2048L, General Physics Lab 2049L, General Physics Lecture 2048

Outreach:

Undergraduate Research Showcase: Judge I assisted judging undergraduate students presenting their research during the Black in Astro Space Week (June 2023)

Student Council Member of the National Society of Black Physicists: Role includes leading an upcoming mentorship program for black and brown students in physics

Equity & Inclusion: Onaketa Tutor I am currently a mid-level online math and physics tutor as well as a mentor to students of color.

Exhibitor: I represented the National Society of Black Physicists Organization at the STEMNoire Conference in June of 2025.

Contact

Email: gsims2021@fau.edu

Address: 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, FL, 33431