Four professors, one instructor, and one TA are on the Fall 2018 Excellent Teacher list. Professors Bryan Dunne and Brian Fields were listed as Outstanding. Others on the list include: Professors Charles Gammie, Joaquin Vieira, and Tony Wong, Instructor Amanda Winans, and TA Melanie Archipley. Congratulations to all!
Illinois Prof Looney was among the science team that released a beautiful image of the dust inferred magnetic field in two galaxies. The Cigar Galaxy (M82), shown here, has its large-scale magnetic field following the bipolar outflows (red) generated by the intense nuclear starburst. Read more...
Illinois Profs Looney and Crutcher and grad student Erin Cox were among the science team that released a beautiful image of the dust inferred magnetic field in the Orion nebula using SOFIA HAWC+ observations. Prof. Looney is a co-I of the HAWC+ instrument, producing the cryogenic motors for the instrument at Illinois....
Department of Astronomy Professor Charles Gammie has been selected for a prestigious Associate Research Appointment in the Center for Advanced Study (CAS) during the 2019-2020 academic year. Tenured faculty with winning proposals are appointed Associates and awarded one semester of release time to pursue their projects in the coming academic year. In accordance with the Center’s...
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.” The awards committee released the following: “Her thesis was selected for its clear objectives and thoughtful observational approach. Her...
The Dark Energy Survey recently finished with observations (taken over 6 years and cataloging hundreds of millions of galaxies), and Illinois astronomers (including Profs. Athol Kemball, 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...
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. About 150 globular star clusters orbit our Milky Way, like bees buzzing around a hive. They are the earliest homesteaders of our galaxy,...
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.
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!
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.- The Astronomy Department invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor appointment. For complete details Click here
Xilu Wang successfully defended her PhD thesis, "Supernovae as gamma ray emitters from the MeV to the TeV." She is moving on to a N3AS Postdoctoral Fellowship at Notre Dame and Berkeley. Congratulations Dr. Wang!- We begin the academic year with two faculty members newly promoted. Joaquin Vieira is now an Associate Professor of Astronomy and of Physics. Tony Wong is now a Full Professor of Astronomy. Congratulations to all!
Graduate Student Daniel George has won third place in the Association for Computing Machinery Student Research Competition. Congratulations, Daniel!