What are our current graduate students working on, and what do they most value about their experience at Michigan Astronomy? We've asked some students to share their stories. For a complete list of our graduate students and a description of their research, please see our Graduate Student page in the People section.
Nathan Crockett
Spectral Surveys | Advisor: Ted Bergin
Nathan Crockett is applying novel analysis techniques to study the chemical composition of star-forming clouds.
“My advisor had access to this Herschel HIFI data well before it became public, and we’ve been able to put into practice a lot of techniques that haven’t been used before.”
Jordan Zastrow
Stellar Feedback | Advisor: Sally Oey
Jordan Zastrow is shedding light on how extreme UV radiation from massive stars affects their environments.
“We have access to amazing resources. I’ve been to Chile twice to collect data. There are great opportunities for teaching. And the faculty are so invested in us.”
Mike Anderson
NSF Fellowship | Hot Halos | Advisor: Joel Bregman
Mike and his advisor have been the first to detect the diffuse hot-gas halos around spiral galaxies predicted by theories of galaxy formation.
“The observations we’re trying to do are not straightforward, [but] we have one of the best collections of X-ray astronomers in the country.”
Melissa McClure
NSF Fellowship | Circumstellar Particles | Advisor: Nuria Calvet
Melissa is looking at the clouds and early disks around young stars to learn how diffuse dust grains lump together, creating conditions for planets to form.
“I came to U-M because of the caliber of the faculty. We’re in a race to publish with groups from Caltech, Harvard CfA, and Europe — it’s truly the cutting-edge.”
Dan Gifford
NSF Fellowship | Galaxy Clusters | Advisor: Chris Miller
Dan Gifford is working to make the caustic method a more accessible method for measuring the mass of galaxy clusters.
“This is an encouraging, collaborative department. Grad school is demanding, so that support system is really important.”
Ashley King
NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship | Black Holes | Advisor: Jon Miller
Ashley is researching how accretion onto black holes, which is seen in X-ray, affects the production of jets, which is seen in radio.
“This is a great young department that’s very driven. We’re strong in the field of black holes, both observationally and theoretically.”
