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Faculty · Principal Investigator

Kevin M. Bandura, Ph.D.

Associate Professor in the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, at West Virginia University; member of the WVU Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology. Builds the instruments behind wide-field radio surveys — CHIME, its FRB outriggers, and HIRAX — to measure dark energy with 21 cm intensity mapping and to catch fast radio bursts in the act.

kevin.bandura@mail.wvu.edu (304) 293-9686 AERB 237, 109 Research Way, Morgantown, WV 26506 ORCID Google Scholar

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Education

Ph.D., Physics 2011 Carnegie Mellon University · Pathfinder for a Neutral Hydrogen Dark Energy Survey (advisor: Jeff Peterson)
B.S., Physics and Psychology 2003 Carnegie Mellon University

Appointments

Associate Professor 2021–present Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, West Virginia University
Adjunct Assistant Professor 2015–present Department of Physics and Astronomy, West Virginia University
Member Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology, West Virginia University
Assistant Professor 2015–2021 Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, West Virginia University
Postdoctoral Fellow 2011–2015 Department of Physics, McGill University

Honors & awards

Outstanding Researcher, senior level (2025–26) 2026 Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, West Virginia University
Outstanding Researcher, senior level (2022–23) 2023 Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, West Virginia University
Lancelot M. Berkeley – New York Community Trust Prize for Meritorious Work in Astronomy, awarded to the CHIME/FRB team 2022 American Astronomical Society

Research support

Funding

Amounts are NSF obligated totals to date — public records; each award links to its page in the NSF award search.

Mapping the Universe in Neutral Hydrogen with CHIME 2025–2028 · $281,080 NSF 2510773 · PI
Collaborative Research: Advanced Digital Calibrators for 21cm Cosmology 2025–2028 · $321,340 NSF 2511256 · PI
Collaborative Research: New Interference Detection, Mitigation, and Fusion Methodologies 2023–2027 · $510,811 NSF 2307581 · Co-PI (PI N. Schmid, with D. Lorimer)
Collaborative Research: Advanced Digital Calibrators for 21cm Cosmology 2021–2026 · $233,044 NSF 2108338 · PI
MRI: Development of a CHIME Outrigger Telescope 2020–2026 · $1,762,469 NSF 2018490 · PI (co-PIs J. Peterson, K. Masui)
Collaborative Research: Cosmology with CHIME 2020–2024 · $242,120 NSF 2006548 · PI
RET Site: Digital Signal Processing in Radio Astronomy (DSPIRA) 2017–2021 · $577,815 NSF 1611114 · Co-PI (PI N. Schmid)

Complete record

Publications

75 papers with CHIME, its FRB outriggers, and HIRAX, plus earlier work from the Carnegie Mellon and McGill years. The WVU-era entries also appear on the lab publication list.

Journal articles 50

Conference proceedings 8

Research notes & preprints 2

Before WVU 15

The Carnegie Mellon and McGill years, 2006–2016 — 21 cm intensity mapping at the GBT and GMRT, the CHIME Pathfinder, and the ICE correlator hardware.

Retracted 1

One paper was retracted after publication; its entry carries the retraction notice.

  • Sub-second periodicity in a fast radio burst

    CHIME/FRB Collaboration, incl. K. Bandura

    Nature · 607, 256 · 2022

    Retracted 23 June 2026 (retraction notice: doi 10.1038/s41586-026-10799-8). An unusual calibration problem left CHIME's digital beams incorrectly pointed when FRB 20191221A was detected; the reported periodicity was the known Galactic pulsar PSR J0248+6021.

    K. BanduraP. SanghaviJ. Kania

Community planning

White papers & reports

Decadal-survey and long-range-plan submissions — the PUMA concept, CHORD, and the intensity-mapping program going back to Astro2010.

Teaching

EE 221 — Introduction to Electrical Engineering WVU
EE 345 — Engineering Electromagnetics WVU
EE 564 — Digital Signal Processing for Radio Astronomy WVU

Course syllabi: EE 221 (Fall 2018) · EE 591B — DSP for Radio Astronomy (Spring 2017).

Advising

Graduate students

Current researchers, then every graduate of the lab with a link to their thesis or dissertation — all also on the people page.

Current

Dylan J. Gormley Ph.D. Candidate Research focus on radio frequency interference (RFI) mitigation.

Graduated 7

Kalyani B. Bhopi Ph.D. Dissertation · 2026 A Digital Calibration Source for 21 cm Cosmology Telescopes
Now: Postdoctoral Fellow, Academia Sinica (Taiwan)
John W. Metzger M.S. Thesis · 2026 Enhancing CHIME Data Integrity: Utilizing an Ancillary Antenna to Detect and Mask Radio Frequency Interference
Kholoud S. T. A. Khairy M.S. Thesis · 2025 Green Bank CHIME/FRB Outriggers Commissioning and Analog System Development
Now: System Engineer III, M.C. Dean
Joseph W. Kania Ph.D. Dissertation · 2023 Applications of Digital Filters in Radio Astronomy
Now: Senior Research Platforms Engineer, University of Manchester
Pranav R. Sanghavi Ph.D. Dissertation · 2022 Pathfinding Fast Radio Bursts Localizations using Very Long Baseline Interferometry
Now: Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
Xiaoqian He M.S. Thesis · 2018 Spatial Fourier Transform for Blind Detection of Radio Observations of Rotating Radio Transients
Now: Senior System Design Engineer, AMD
Akshaya Rane Ph.D. Dissertation · 2017 A Study of the Fast Radio Burst Population
Now: Senior Data Scientist, lululemon

Committee service 5

Graduate committees served on across Physics & Astronomy and the Lane Department, beyond his own students above.

Evan T. Smith Ph.D., Physics & Astronomy · 2022 Impact of Radio Frequency Interference and Real-Time Spectral Kurtosis Mitigation
Morgan R. Dameron M.S., Lane Dept. of CSEE · 2022 Inferential Statistics and Information Theoretical Measures: An Approach to Interference Detection in Radio Astronomy
Brent J. Shapiro-Albert Ph.D., Physics & Astronomy · 2021 Pulsar Noise Processes and Emission Physics
Marwan M. Alkhweldi Ph.D., Lane Dept. of CSEE · 2021 Transform Based Approaches for the Detection of Astrophysical Signals
Nickolas M. Pingel Ph.D., Physics & Astronomy · 2017 Deep Extragalactic Neutral Hydrogen Surveys with the Green Bank Telescope

Professional memberships

IEEE
American Physical Society
American Astronomical Society
American Society for Engineering Education

Selected talks & posters

WVUniverse public talk, WVU Planetarium — backyard radio astronomy — 2026
APS Mid-Atlantic Section Meeting (poster) — 2015
SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, Montreal — 2014
URSI, Boulder, Colorado — 2014
Interferometric Techniques for Impulsive Signals at Radio/Microwave Frequencies, Ohio State University — 2013
Intensity Mapping Workshop, Oxford — 2012
AAS Meeting, Boston (poster) — 2011
Great Lakes Cosmology Workshop (poster) — 2009
Sackler 21 cm Cosmology Conference, Harvard (poster) — 2008

Press

In the media 16

University news and press coverage of the lab's instruments and results, 2017 to now.

WVU outstanding educators, advisers, staff and researchers recognized by the Statler College 2026 Statler College News
WVUniverse public talk on backyard radio astronomy 2026 WVU Physics & Astronomy and WVU Planetarium, on Instagram
WVU engineers recalibrate radio telescopes to illuminate dark energy 2025 WVU, via EurekAlert
WVU researchers aim to cut through radio interference that obscures signal detection 2023 WVU Today
WVU researchers on team that detected strange cosmic 'heartbeat' 2022 Statler College News — coverage of the paper since retracted (see Publications)
WVU Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology faculty on international team to receive the Honorary 2022 Berkeley Prize 2022 EurekAlert
CHIME telescope and collaborative efforts from WVU lead to the detection of more than 500 fast radio bursts 2021 WVU Today
Bandura to start a new National Science Foundation project 2021 Statler College News
Bandura's work on detection of radio bursts within the Milky Way galaxy detailed in study published by Nature 2021 Statler College News
Unraveling the mysteries of the cosmos: new telescope at Green Bank Observatory will improve localization of fast radio bursts 2020 WVU Today
New telescope in works at Green Bank to detect, map fast radio bursts 2020 Charleston Gazette-Mail
WVU researcher to tackle the mysteries of dark energy and the universe beyond 2020 WVU Today
In a nearby galaxy, a fast radio burst unravels more questions than answers 2020 WVU Today
WVU professor's work on detection of fast radio bursts detailed in Nature 2019 WVU Today
WVU professor plays key role in telescope program that will map the history of the universe 2017 Newswise
Engineering professors to utilize Green Bank telescope in K-12 teacher research experience 2016 Statler College News

About this page

A living CV

This page is Kevin's CV of record — it grows with the lab's publication list and people pages, and a print-ready copy is always one click away via Get CV.

Lab publications The lab

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Students build real
instruments here.

If you're a graduate or undergraduate student who wants hands-on work with radio telescopes — analog front ends, FPGA signal processing, or the software that turns raw voltages into science — we'd like to hear from you.

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  • Lab Advanced Engineering Research Building, Room 304
    WVU Evansdale Campus, Morgantown, WV
  • Department Lane Department of Computer Science
    and Electrical Engineering