NANOGrav, or the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves, is a collaboration of astronomers and physicists from a dozen institutions across the U.S. and Canada. The goal of the project is to directly detect gravitational waves using an array of high-precision millisecond pulsars, and then to characterize the sources of these gravitational waves. NANOGrav is sensitive to gravitational waves with nanohertz frequencies, making it complementary to interferometers like LIGO and VIRGO that are sensitive to much higher frequencies, as well as to possible space-based experiments like LISA. The sources in this part of the gravitational wave spectrum are expected to be merging supermassive black holes (both individual sources and a stochastic background), relics from inflation, and possibly cosmic strings. Gravitational wave astronomy promises to open an entirely new window into our Universe, giving us the ability to study objects and phenomena that are completely inaccessible through electromagnetic observations, and any time totally new phase space is opened, unexpected discoveries follow. NANOGrav is likely to be a completely transformative project. NANOGrav is part of the International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA) along with the and the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array in Australia. These projects are hoping to detect gravitational waves within the next five to ten years, which means that they could make the first ever detection.
NANOGrav is a large collaboration consisting of several smaller projects and challenges. My primary involvement in NANOGrav is as the chair of the Outreach and Education working group (a role I also fill for the IPTA). I'm also working with Rob Ferdman, Nate Garver-Daniels, and Adam Brazier to create a database for cataloging and archiving NANOGrav data. This is an important part of the project not only from a logistics standpoint, but especially because any gravitational wave detection will be subject to intense scrutiny, so we need to make sure that our data is available for outside investigators to check and verify.