Quasar outflows
Nearby type 1 AGN are the best resolved laboratories for directly studying quasar outflows at high redshift. With Kayhan Gultekin, I am conducting a survey of the multi-phase propertiesoutflows in nearby Type-1 AGN, primarily using data from Magellan and the NOEMA.

Supermassive black hole binaries
Along with Mike Eracleous, Steinn Sigurdsson, and collaborators, I am conducting a systematic observational search for close, supermassive black hole binaries. We've adopted an approach analogous to single-line spectroscopic binary stars, where we look for radial velocity changes a sample of quasar with offset broad emission lines.

The Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS)
I am a core member of the TDSS team. TDSS is an eBOSS subprogram that will provide follow-up spectroscopy for variable quasars. My work in this survey focuses on changing-look quasars and multi-year spectroscopic variability of quasars.

My dissertation research focused on using statistical techniques and a multi-wavelength perspective to improve our methods of measuring fundamental parameters in AGN. Investigations were divided into several sub-projects, two of which are described here.

Black hole masses and orientation
Black hole masses are commonly estimated in AGN using the single-epoch black hole mass scaling relationships. In Runnoe et al. (2013a) I showed that masses estimated in this way have an orientation dependence which can be quanitified and corrected. The first figure on the right shows the orientation effect which is present in masses estimated from H-beta but not CIV.

Rehabilitating CIV-based black hole mass estimates
Although they are not orientation dependent, there is very little faith in CIV-based black hole masses. Runnoe et al. (2013c) focuses on using additional spectral properties in the CIV spectral region to attain better agreement with the more trusted H-beta masses. The second figure shows that the disagreement between the velocity line widths of H-beta and CIV can be described with a robust spectral measurment.