Biography
Professor French received her SB degrees in Physics and Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences in 2011 from MIT, and her PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the University of Arizona in 2017. She was a Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow at the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, CA. Professor French joined the faculty at UIUC in 2020.
Research Interests
Galaxy evolution
Transient astronomy
Optical and radio observations
Research Description
Professor French uses multi-wavelength observations to study how galaxies evolve over time and co-evolve with their supermassive black holes.
Additional Campus Affiliations
Assistant Professor, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
External Links
Recent Publications
French, K. D., Smercina, A., Rowlands, K., Tripathi, A., Zabludoff, A. I., Smith, J. D. T., Narayanan, D., Yang, Y., Shirley, Y., & Alatalo, K. (2023). The State of the Molecular Gas in Post-starburst Galaxies. Astrophysical Journal, 942(1), [25]. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aca46e
Angus, C. R., Baldassare, V. F., Mockler, B., Foley, R. J., Ramirez-Ruiz, E., Raimundo, S. I., French, K. D., Auchettl, K., Pfister, H., Gall, C., Hjorth, J., Drout, M. R., Alexander, K. D., Dimitriadis, G., Hung, T., Jones, D. O., Rest, A., Siebert, M. R., Taggart, K., ... Wojtak, R. (2022). A fast-rising tidal disruption event from a candidate intermediate-mass black hole. Nature Astronomy, 6(12), 1452-1463. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-022-01811-y
Arcavi, I., Nyiha, I., & French, K. D. (2022). Types of Transients in the Centers of Post-starburst and Quiescent Balmer-strong Galaxies. Astrophysical Journal, 924(2), [121]. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac2fa7
Lanz, L., Stepanoff, S., Hickox, R. C., Alatalo, K., French, K. D., Rowlands, K., Nyland, K., Appleton, P. N., Lacy, M., Medling, A., Mulchaey, J. S., Sazonova, E., & Urry, C. M. (2022). Are Active Galactic Nuclei in Post-starburst Galaxies Driving the Change or Along for the Ride? Astrophysical Journal, 935(1), [29]. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac7d56
Luo, Y., Rowlands, K., Alatalo, K., Sazonova, E., Abdurro’uf, Heckman, T., Medling, A. M., Deustua, S. E., Nyland, K., Lanz, L., Petric, A. O., Otter, J. A., Aalto, S., Dimassimo, S., French, K. D., Gallagher, J. S., Roediger, J. C., & Stepanoff, S. (2022). A Multiwavelength View of IC 860: What Is in Action inside Quenching Galaxies ** Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led principal investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA. Astrophysical Journal, 938(1), [63]. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac8b7d
