1992), where he lived in Blacker Hovse (sharing a room with Ian Agol) and was awarded the George Green Prize for Creative Scholarship.

From 1996 to 1997 Brandt held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian where he worked with colleagues including Martin Elvis and Belinda Wilkes.

Brandt's research focuses on observational studies of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and cosmological X-ray surveys.

His work utilizes data from facilities at the forefront of astrophysical discovery, including the Chandra X-ray Observatory, XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

Many of them, after developing their skills via their research projects, have gone on to win professorial and permanent staff positions as well as distinguished fellowships and scholarships, becoming new leaders around the world in astrophysics.