Current Grad Student Spotlight

[Current grad in theoretical astrophysics] Megan Comins is a PhD candidate in Astronomy working with Dr. Marina Romanova and Prof. Richard Lovelace in the Theoretical Plasma Astrophysics group. [more]

[Current grad in extra galactic astronomy] Betsey Adams is a graduate student in astronomy working with Professor Martha Haynes and Professor Riccardo Giovanelli. She is interested in how galaxies form and evolve, especially the lowest mass galaxies. She uses data from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey to study the gas content of galaxies. (more)  

[Current grad in cosmology] Joyce Byun is a graduate student in Astronomy working with Prof. Rachel Bean.  Her primary research focus is on studying observable signatures of inflation and how the physical mechanism that caused inflation might be discovered through observational constraints.

[Current grad in sub-mm instrumentation and astrophysics] Carl Ferkinhoff is a PhD student working with Professor Gordon Stacey in the Submillimeter Astrophysics and Instrumentation group. His thesis work is twofold: building submillimeter instruments, and using them and other sub-mm observatories, like Herschel and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), to understand the conditions of star formation and the interstellar medium in galaxies in the Early Universe. (more)

[Current grad in theoretical astrophysics] Jim Fuller is a graduate student in astronomy, working with Professor Dong Lai. Jim is interested in one of the most poorly understood and unconstrained processes in astrophysics: the tidal friction in compact stellar and exoplanetary systems. Jim's research is primarily theoretical, but it is frequently motivated by observations of compact astrophysical systems that can be used to test tidal theories. (more)

[Current graduate student in planetary science.] Jason Hofgartner is a second year PhD student working with Professors Don Campbell, Jonathan Lunine, and Alex Hayes. He is particularly interested in planetary exploration and is presently involved in studies of Venus and Titan. (more)

[Current grad in pulsar astronomy] I am in Jim Cordes' group and I study pulsars and pulsar timing, specifically how pulsar timing can be used to detect gravitational waves.  I do this for the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), a major contributor to the International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA). (more)