2018 Illinois Ph.D. Erin Cox has been awarded the 2018 Robert L. Brown Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award (sponsored by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory) for her thesis entitled “Probing Planetary Disks: from Birth to Protoplanets.”
Astronomy at IllinoisWhy study Astronomy?
Featured StarRIGEL (β Orionis)
Help us name the Astronomy classroomThe Astronomy Department would like to name our Classroom the James B. Kaler Classroom in honor of beloved Prof. Emeritus Jim Kaler. Here's how you can help.
Get InvolvedExplore research opportunities for graduate students
The Dark Energy Survey recently finished with observations (taken over 6 years and cataloging hundreds of millions of galaxies), and Illinois astronomers (including Profs. Xin Liu, Paul Ricker, Yue Shen, and Joaquin Vieira) are using this large data for new exciting science results, such as discovering close binary supermassive black holes in the center of distant galaxies.
Graduate student, Daniel George, successfully defended his thesis on Oct. 22, 2018. The title of his defense was "Enabling Real-time Multimessenger Astrophysics via Numerical Relativity and Deep Learning". At the end of the month, he will head to California to work at Google X. Congratulations, Daniel!
More Department News
- Globular star clusters are favorite targets for amateur sky watchers. To the naked eye they appear as fuzzy-looking stars. Through a small telescope they resolve into glittering snowball-shaped islands of innumerable stars crowded together.
- Yixian Cao earned her PhD on November 15, 2018. The title of her defense was "Spatially Resolved Study of Molecular Isotopologue 13CO In Nearby Galaxies". Congratulations, Yixian!
- Prof. Joaquin Vieira's lab is the center of activity for the new camera at the South Pole Telescope. Read more.
- Join the Astronomy Department at the Observatory on Friday, September 28, 2018 for an evening of conversations about the Universe and viewing the Moon and nearby planets with telescopes. This event is free and suitable for all ages.
Calendar
Astronomy Picture of the Day
ASTR 100Learn the basic concepts of modern astronomy, from the Solar System to the Big Bang.
ASTR 210Survey of modern astronomy for students with background in physics.
ASTR 350Studies the origin, evolution, and eventual fate of the universe, and the scientific tools used to study these issues.
