Graduate Students

David Ball

• B.A., 2015, Whitman College

David is working with Prof. Feryal Özel on understanding the physics of magnetic reconnection in accretion disks of supermassive black holes using both general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic and particle-in-cell simulations.

Chris Bilinski

• B.S., 2010, California Institute Of Technology

Chris is researching presupernova outbursts using KAIT and measuring disk sizes using CHARA interferometry.

Alex Bixel

• B.A., 2016, University of Virginia

Alex is working with Daniel Apai to study the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets using transmission spectroscopy. He is also interested in how life could be detected through its effects on the chemical composition of atmospheres.

Ryan Boyden

• B.S. in Physics and Astronomy, 2017, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Gabriele Bozzola

• M.S. in Physics, 2017, University of Milan

Gabriele is working with Vasileos Paschalidis to study in full general relativity the fragmentations of supermassive stars that result in binary black holes surrounded by accretion disks.

Jeremy Dietrich

• B.A. in Astrophysics and Physics, 2017, Harvard

Ryan Endsley

• B.A., 2015, Washington University-St. Louis

Nico Garavito Camargo

• M.S., 2015, Universidad de Los Andes

Melissa Halford

• B.A., 2012, Cornell University

Melissa is working with Prof. Dennis Zaritsky to study the stellar initial mass function (IMF). Her research focuses on possible variations in the IMF in different environments.

Michael Hammer

• B.A., 2015, Cornell University

Michael is working with Professor Kaitlin Kratter on a subset of his research interests.

Yun-Hsin Huang

• M.S., 2015, University of Chicago

Yun-Hsin is working with Profs. Xiaohui Fan and Eiichi Egami on the Steward/UKIRT Near-IR Imaging of the Hyper Supreme-Cam (HSC) Deep Fields.

Jennifer Kadowaki

• B.A., 2014, University of California-Los Angeles

Jennifer is working with Prof. Dennis Zaritsky on low-surface brightness galaxies. In particular, her research focuses on understanding the environment's role in the formation and evolution of ultra-diffuse galaxies.

Ryan Keenan

• B.S in Astronomy & Astrophysics, Physics, & Mathematical Sci, 2017, University of Michigan

Junhan Kim

• B.S., 2010, Seoul National University

Junhan is developing a Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) receiver for the South Pole Telescope (SPT) with Prof. Dan Marrone. He is also working on various projects for the Event Horizon Telescope to study the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.

Harrison Krantz

• B.S. Engineering Physics & B.S. Computer Science, 2017, Colorado School of Mines

David Henry Lesser

• B.S., 2010, Oberlin College

Rixin Li

• B.S., 2014, Peking University

Katrina Litke

• B.S., 2015, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

Katrina is working with Prof. Dan Marrone to study gravitationally lensed dusty star-forming galaxies using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).

Joseph Long

• B.A. Physics, 2014, Pomona College

Joseph is working on adaptive optics instrumentation and analysis of coronagraphic data.

Jianwei Lyu

• M.S., 2014, Chinese Academy Of Sciences

Erin Maier

• B.S. in Physics and Astronomy, 2017, University of Iowa

Ramesh Mainali

• M.S., 2012, Tribhuvan University

Currently working with Daniel Stark to study physical properties of high redshift galaxies and their evolution.

Christine O'Donnell

• M.P.P., 2014, University Of Virginia

Ekta Patel

• B.S., 2014, New York University

Ekta is studying the evolution of massive satellite galaxies such as the Magellanic Clouds and M33 in high resolution cosmological simulations. She specifically focuses on their frequency, orbital histories, and their influence on host galaxies.

Ragadeepika Pucha

• Integrated M.Sc in Physics, 2015, Visva-Bharati University

Raga is working with Prof. Beth Willman on the study of resolved populations in dwarf galaxies. She is interested in learning about how the dwarf galaxies grow and evolve.

Yujing Qin

• M.A., 2016, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Benjamin Rackham

• B.S., 2009, Westminster College of Salt Lake City

Ben studies the atmospheres of exoplanets via ground-based observations. He uses spectroscopic and photometric approaches to investigate molecular absorption and emission features of super-earths and hot jupiters, which constrain atmospheric models of these planets. These techniques can be applied to future projects characterizing the atmospheres of Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of nearby stars.

Carolyn Raithel

• B.A., 2015, Carleton College

Mel Rose

• B.A. in Astrophysics and Engineering Sciences, 2017, Harvard University

Noah Salazar Rivera

• B.S. Physics & B.S. Computer Science, 2017, California State University, San Bernardino

Jan-Torge Schindler

• M.S., 2014, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

Jan-Torge is working with Prof. Xiaohui Fan on an all-sky catalog of bright high redshift quasars to study the early growth of the most massive SMBHs, update the bright end of the quasar luminosity function and provide new quasar sight lines for studies of the Intergalactic Medium.

Deborah Schmidt

• B.S., 2011, Fraklin and Marshall College

Samantha Scibelli

• B.S. in Physics and Astronomy, 2017, Stony Brook University

Peter Senchyna

• B.S. Physics, Astronomy, 2015, University of Washington

Peter is using multiwavelength data to probe stellar populations in nearby (z < 0.1) low-metallicity star-forming regions and calibrate models applicable to galaxies in the very early universe.

Andrew Sevrinsky

• B.S. in Physics, 2017, Georgia State University

Rachel Smullen

• B.S., 2014, University Of Wyoming

Eckhart Spalding

• M.S., 2014, University Of Kentucky

Eckhart is working with Prof. Phil Hinz to help commission the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer, and is working on 2nd-year project to evaluate a new technique for acquiring precision infrared photometry with the LBT.

Adam Sutherland

• B.A., 2016, University of Chicago

Brian Svoboda

• B.S., 2012, Western Washington University

Brian is studying protoclusters and the earliest phases of high mass star formation with radio and submillimeter telescopes. Currently, he is investigating the physical conditions, deuterium fractionation, and dust properties of clumps in the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey.

Mengtao Tang

• B.S., 2014, Peking University

Kevin Wagner

• B.S., 2015, University of Cincinnati

Kevin is using ground-based adaptive optics systems (such as VLT/SPHERE and MagAO) to search for young and forming planetary systems, and to study these archetypes of mature planetary systems through high-contrast imaging and spectroscopy.

Ya-Lin Wu

• M.S., 2011, National Taiwan University

Ya-Lin is a member of the Magellan VisAO team, and is working with Prof. Laird Close on the direct imaging of exoplanets.

Minghao Yue

• B.A., 2016, Peking University

Minghao is working with Prof. Xiaohui Fan on the environment of quasars and their host galaxies.

Yifan Zhou

• B.S., 2014, Peking University