Skip to main content

Decker French

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

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

French, K. D., Earl, N., Novack, A. B., Pardasani, B., Pillai, V. R., Tripathi, A., & Verrico, M. E. (2023). Fading AGNs in Poststarburst Galaxies. Astrophysical Journal, 950(2), Article 153. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acd249

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), Article 25. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aca46e

Holoien, T. W. S., Berger, V. L., Hinkle, J. T., Galbany, L., Strom, A. L., Vallely, P. J., Anderson, J. P., Boutsia, K., French, K. D., Kochanek, C. S., Kuncarayakti, H., Lyman, J. D., Morrell, N., Prieto, J. L., Sánchez, S. F., Stanek, K. Z., & Walth, G. L. (2023). Examining the Properties of Low-luminosity Hosts of Type Ia Supernovae from ASAS-SN. Astrophysical Journal, 950(2), Article 108. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acce35

View all publications on Illinois Experts