ROY KILGARD is an Associate Professor of the Practice in Astronomy. His background is in high-energy astrophysics. Prior to his move to Wesleyan, he spent almost a decade at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, where he worked on the Chandra X-ray Observatory–one of NASA's Great Observatories, and the X-ray counterpart to the Hubble Space Telescope. His research focuses on black holes in nearby galaxies with an emphasis on intermediate-mass black holes: an enigmatic class of objects whose origins are unclear. When not studying the heavens, he travels to sci-fi and fantasy conventions where he lectures on astronomy in science fiction and pop culture.