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Decker French

Profile picture for Decker French

Contact Information

224 Astronomy
1002 W. Green St.
Urbana, IL
M/C 221
Assistant Professor

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, Astronomy
Assistant Professor, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)

Recent Publications

Lin, L., Pan, H. A., Ellison, S. L., Harada, N., Jiménez-Donaire, M. J., French, K. D., Baker, W. M., Hsieh, B. C., Koyama, Y., López-Cobá, C., Michiyama, T., Rowlands, K., Sánchez, S. F., & Thorp, M. D. (2024). The ALMaQUEST Survey. XII. Dense Molecular Gas as Traced by HCN and HCO+ in Green Valley Galaxies. Astrophysical Journal, 963(2), Article 115. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad18b9

Sun, Y., Lee, G. H., Zabludoff, A. I., French, K. D., Helton, J. M., Kerrison, N. A., Tremonti, C. A., & Yang, Y. (2024). Evolution of gas flows along the starburst to post-starburst to quiescent galaxy sequence. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 528(4), 5783-5803. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae366

Aleo, P. D., Malanchev, K., Sharief, S., Jones, D. O., Narayan, G., Foley, R. J., Villar, V. A., Angus, C. R., Baldassare, V. F., Bustamante-Rosell, M. J., Chatterjee, D., Cold, C., Coulter, D. A., Davis, K. W., Dhawan, S., Drout, M. R., Engel, A., French, K. D., Gagliano, A., ... Zenati, Y. (2023). The Young Supernova Experiment Data Release 1 (YSE DR1): Light Curves and Photometric Classification of 1975 Supernovae. Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series, 266(1), Article 9. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/acbfba

Baron, D., Netzer, H., French, K. D., Lutz, D., Davies, R. I., & Prochaska, J. X. (2023). Star formation and molecular gas properties of post-starburst galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 524(2), 2741-2769. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad1792

Dodd, S. A., Nukala, A., Connor, I., Auchettl, K., French, K. D., Law-Smith, J. A. P., Hammerstein, E., & Ramirez-Ruiz, E. (2023). Mid-infrared Outbursts in Nearby Galaxies: Nuclear Obscuration and Connections to Hidden Tidal Disruption Events and Changing-look Active Galactic Nuclei. Astrophysical Journal Letters, 959(2), Article L19. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad1112

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