Ben Farr, Physics & Astronomy graduate student and a member of Prof. Vicky Kalogera's group , has been elected Student Representative for the American Physical Society's Topical Group in Gravitation. The names of all 2012 GGR officers are here.

Here is a little more information about the Topical Group in Gravitation.

Dr. Daryl Haggard (CIERA Postdoctoral Fellow), was a guest editor for the May 4^th, 2012 edition of the AASWOMEN Newsletter. Click here to view the newsletter.

The AASWOMEN Newsletter is produced by the American Astronomical Society Committee on the Status of Women.

Kevin Broh-Kahn (Computer Science major), has been awarded a Northwestern University Summer Undergraduate Research Grant. Congratulations Kevin!

The title of his independent research project is: "Performance and Data Analysis of Parallel Monte Carlo Algorithm for Simulating Dense Stellar Systems". Kevin's faculty advisor for this project is Prof. Vicky Kalogera.

We are happy to announce that Dr. John Everett will be joining us as the new CIERA Assistant Director of Operations, beginning May 14th.

John is moving to Northwestern from University of Wisconsin-Madison where he has been for the past few years as a postdoctoral associate and, more recently, as an Assistant Scientist at the Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas. Earlier he was a CITA postdoctoral fellow and he got his PhD from the U. of Chicago. His research interests are in the area of plasma astrophysics and magnetohydrodynamics. He also has had experience with management and organization of events and has collaborated with researchers from different disciplines.

Apart from his management and planning work in close collaboration with Prof. Vicky Kalogera, John will continue to pursue research projects of interest to him in collaboration with current or future CIERA members, students and postdocs.

Please join us in welcoming John to CIERA now in spirit and physically when he moves here in less than a month!

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Jason H. Steffen has accepted our offer for CIERA fellowships, beginning in the Fall of 2012.

He works on dynamical studies of planetary systems identified in the Kepler data. Specifically, the gravitational interaction of multiple planets in a single system will cause each planet's orbital period to change slightly from one orbit to the next. These deviations can be used to measure the orbital properties and masses of the planets in the system.

Dr. Steffen's research will be in collaboration with Prof. Fred Rasio and Prof. Heidi Schellman.

We look forward to welcoming him to CIERA in Fall 2012.

Ms. Stephanie Tang will be starting in a temporary capacity as our new Research Coordinator, beginning April 16, 2012. Ms. Tang just finished her Bachelor's degree at Northwestern University, majoring in Psychology, Legal Studies, and International Studies in the Winter quarter, 2012. She will be begin her graduate studies this summer at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

President Obama has proposed a 20 percent budget cut to NASA's funding for next year, putting a serious strain on big science. The glory days of Alan Shepard and Neil Armstrong were decades ago and NASA now seems to be winding down. So, is NASA still relevant? Prof. Mel Ulmer (Northwestern University), Prof. Don York (University of Illinois Chicago), and Prof. Mike Smutko (Northwestern University) explain why yes, it definitely still is.

If you're looking for something to do on Wednesday, March 14 from 6:30-8:00pm, consider swinging by the Firehouse Grill at 750 Chicago Avenue in Evanston to hear the latest and greatest about extrasolar planets, from Dr. Nick Cowan!

A mere 60 light-years away, orbiting an orangish star called HD 189733, is a world an Earthling would not want to visit. The planet is a gas giant, like Jupiter or Saturn, but unlike those familiar worlds this one hugs tightly to its host star, orbiting at about one thirtieth the distance at which Earth circles the sun. The exoplanet, labeled HD 189733 b by astronomical convention, stays mighty toasty under its astronomical broiler, with temperatures upward of 900 degrees Celsius.

Thanks to a new study, any hypothetical unfortunates forced to visit HD 189733 b will know which part of the planet is the most infernal. Dr. Nicolas Cowan, CIERA postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University, Prof. Eric Agol from the University of Washington in Seattle (U.W.), and Carl Majeau, undergraduate from Columbia University, have produced a thermal map of the planet's atmosphere in both latitude and longitude.

Read more about this story on Scientific American at Yahoo!News.

The full publication of this article, A TWO-DIMENSIONAL INFRARED MAP OF THE EXTRASOLAR PLANET HD 189733b, is available on The Astrophysical Journal Letters

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Nate Kaib and Dr. Junfeng Wang have accepted our offers for CIERA fellowships, beginning in the Fall of 2012.

Nate will join CIERA following his current position as a CITA National Fellow at Queen's University in Canada. His research focuses on studies of the dynamics of planets and small bodies in planetary systems.

Junfeng will move to CIERA from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics where he has held a Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Postdoctoral Fellowship. His research covers a wide range of topics, from massive star-forming regions to circum-nuclear regions of nearby galaxies using NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory and accompanying multi-wavelength observations.

We look forward to welcoming both of them to CIERA in Fall 2012.

Two years after Northwestern's Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophyiscs (CIERA) was established, its codirectors decided that it was ready for an inaugural conference. But with the breadth of research at CIERA, which supports work in both observational and theoretical astrophysics, choosing a topic proved difficult.

"Other astrophysics centers are not as broad as CIERA," says Vicky Kalogera, physics and astronomy and codirector of CIERA. "They tend to focus on a specific part of astrophysics. So when they organize a conference, it usually focuses on that specific area." After multiple discussions among Kalogera and CIERA codirectors Fred Rasio and Dave Meyer, they decided that the conference should focus on one of CIERA's most prized assets: its postdocs...read more here

Dr. Laura Trouille, CIERA Postdoctoral Fellow, wrote an article for the American Astronomical Society (AAS) newsletter on transforming cultural norms in astronomy departments and institutions. The article presents the main topics of discussion from the panel discussion led by the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy during the May 2011 Boston AAS conference. The goals of the session were (1) to provide information to the community on how to organize, fund, and ensure the sustainability and institutionalization of mentoring groups and (2) to present examples showing how departments have managed to change the climate so that mentoring and networking groups become accepted as the norm.

The astronomical film Moonrise (2011) explores mankind's eternal fascination with Luna or the Moon, Earth's only natural satellite. Following the tone and tempo of the beautiful choreographic symphony Daphnis et Chloé by Maurice Ravel, Moonrise takes the audience on a journey through history and space. As it has for ages, the moon stands at the intersection of art and science motivating scientists, guiding explorers, inspiring artists and writers, and fascinating all who see it. Moonrise features awe-inspiring images and time-lapse photography, historical illustrations, as well as NASA scientific visualizations.

Dan Stevens has been selected to receive the J. G. Nolan Scholarship for the 2011-2012 academic year. The scholarship money is replacing funds from another financial aid grant that NU gave to Dan previously, so it's being applied towards tuition (and the like) for the Winter and Spring Quarter.

We are happy to announce that Michael Smutko has accepted a full-time Distinguished Senior Lecturer position in the Department starting this Spring. He will be teaching both physics and astronomy courses. For the past eight years, Michael has held a joint appointment with the Adler Planetarium. We are delighted that the Department will now be able to benefit more fully from his expertise.

Graduate student Vivien Raymond accepted an offer for the Caltech Millikan Prize Postdoctoral fellowship in Experimental Physics; he will be moving to Caltech following his PhD graduation in Summer 2012. He works in Kalogera's research group on physical parameter estimation of gravitational waves from binary coalescence with spinning compact objects within the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. Congratulations Vivien!

CIERA and the Block Museum hosted "Picturing and Observing the Night Sky" on Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 7:00pm in the Dearborn Observatory. Block Museum senior curator Debora Wood and Michael Smutko, distinguished senior lecturer in physics and astronomy at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, discussed how early astronomers mapped the stars. Afterwards participants saw the stars through the University's historic telescope.

Tsing Wai Wong, a graduate student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, won a CIC - Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellowship! Tsing Wai is a member of Prof. Vicky Kalogera's research group.

Tsing Wai is 1 of 6 students to be awarded this fellowship. He will receive a stipend of $30,000 for one year, and conduct research at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO). He will work with Dr. Jeffrey E. McClintock and Dr. Ramesh Narayan at the SAO, who will be his research adviser and co-adviser. His fellowship starts on Aug 1, 2012 and ends on July 31, 2013. He will work on modeling the observed X-ray binaries in our Galaxy, which all host a black hole. The goal is to find out the progenitor mass of the black hole and the possible momentum kick imparted to the black hole during its formation through a core collapse event. He will also work on the hydrodynamics simulation of core collapse supernova to check whether the current core collapse theory can match the results he found in modeling the observed X-ray binaries. He will collaborate with Dr. Chris Fryer of the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the hydrodynamics simulations of core collapse.

Well done Tsing Wai!

Kyle Kremer, a senior double-majoring in Physics and Trumpet Performance (trumpet and flugelhorn), and a Goldwater Scholar and a Robert C. Byrd Scholar, has won the Churchill Scholarship! Kyle conducts research on compact objects in binary systems in Prof. Vicky Kalogera's group. With the Churchill Scholarship, Kyle will be pursuing a Masters of Advanced Study degree in theoretical astrophysics at the University of Cambridge.

Kyle is 1 of 14 students across the United States who won this prestigious award. The Churchill Scholarship will pay all of his University and College fees (approximately $25,000), a living allowance of £13,000 for the twelve-month program, up to $1,000 for one round trip airfare from the United States to the United Kingdom, the cost of his student visa for the United Kingdom, and an additional travel stipend of $500.00. He is also eligible for a Special Research Grant of up to $2,000. Kyle will do a Master of Advanced Study in Astronomy, a new program where he will combine courses in Astrophysics and Mathematics with research in astrophysical fluid dynamics and accretion discs. After Cambridge, Kyle plans to do a doctorate in Theoretical Astrophysics in the United States.

For a story from the Northwestern University NewsCenter, see Trumpeting a Music/Science Combo.

The TribLocal also did a story on Kyle. See Northwestern music student hits high note with astrophysics.

Congratulations Kyle!

NASA Langley Aerospace Engineer Jill Lynette Hanna Prince, former Undergraduate Research Assistant for Prof. Giles Novak, received the Women in Aerospace Achievement Award award during the Women in Aerospace organization's annual awards ceremony and banquet held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Arlington, VA on October 26, 2010. Four current NASA leaders and one retiree were recognized for their work by Women in Aerospace. The event celebrates women's professional excellence in aerospace and honors women who have made outstanding contributions to the aerospace community.

Jill came to NASA Langley as a Joint Institute for Advancement of Flight Sciences (JIAFS) student and continued her work there as a contractor. She became a civil servant in 2002. She has been at NASA Langley since 1999 and has made some major contributions in her time at the Center. She has worked mission operations for three Mars missions; Mars Odyssey in 2001, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2005, and Mars Phoenix lander EDL (Entry, Descent and Landing) in May 2008

Carl Rodriguez gave a public talk at Purdue University North Central in Westville, Indiana. The talk, titled "Ripples in the Universe: Catching Gravitational Waves with LIGO", described the current status of the LIGO project, describing the exicting science potential of gravitational wave astronomy. The talk was sponsered by the Local Astronomy Club and attended by students from local elementary schools. In addition to the talk, the presentation included several visualizations to better describe spacetime, which can be found here.

Prof. Frederic A. Rasio has been appointed as the next editor of The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The mission of the letters section is to allow "astrophysicists to rapidly publish short notices of significant original research." Rasio will being serving as editor on January 1st, 2013. Full article from Northwestern News Center here.

CIERA co-director, Vicky Kalogera, is awarded a Simons Foundation Fellowship in Theoretical Physics for her research proposal entitled "Decoding Gravitational-Wave Signals from Compact Object Mergers". The Fellowship will support a full-year sabbatical leave away from teaching and service work and will allow her to focus on research initiatives within the interdisciplinary environment fostered by CIERA. Per the Foundation's guidelines "awards are based on the applicant's scientific accomplishment in the five-year period preceding the application and on a judgment of the potential scientific impact of the leave period." The Foundation makes up to 20 awards in all areas of theoretical physics each year. More details here.

Exoplanets: Could there be other habitable worlds out there?

CIERA Astronomers (Ben Farr, Diego Fazi, Meagan Morscher, Sara Rastegar, and Vivien Raymond) went to the Roosevelt Elementary School Science Fair on December 2^nd, and presented an interactive booth where students and their families could learn about planets outside of our Solar System, known as exoplanets. They were shown how astronomers discover new planets, figure out what they are composed of, and what we think it takes for a planet to be habitable. Could there be other life out there?

CIERA Supports Outstanding Research with Local High School Students

This past weekend two Evanston Township High School students, Julia Farenga-Crowley and Patrick Loftus, won third place in the national Siemens Talent Competition. Their essay, poster, and 15 minute presentation on their summer research project with Northwestern University CIERA postdoctoral fellow Dr. Laura Trouille caught the attention of the judges and garnered them each a $20,000 college scholarship. The students were connected with Dr. Trouille through Northwestern's Office of STEM Education Partnerships.

Their work, entitled "Visual Morphological Classification of Post-Starburst Galaxies", was chosen among 1900 submissions. They first traveled to MIT in November to compete in the Regional Finals. Winning that, they then went on to D.C. to compete for the $100,000 scholarship. Their research with Dr. Trouille focuses on understanding how galaxies evolve from star forming to not, using post-starburst galaxies as a probe of this transition. They found that the evolution depends most on the mass of the galaxy, with the most massive galaxies undergoing merger activity and black hole feedback, while the less massive galaxies appear to be able to shut off their star formation through more secular processes. Dr. Mark Vondracek, the students' physics teacher at ETHS, is an essential component to the students' success, providing them a solid background in physics and encouragement and support in all their endeavors.

Bharath Pattabiraman was awarded "Best Poster Award"
at the "Conference on Computational Physics", held in Gatlinburg, TN

Poster Abstract: Computing the interactions between the stars within dense stellar clusters is a problem of fundamental importance in theoretical astrophysics. However, simulating realistic sized clusters of about 10⁶ stars is computationally intensive and often takes a long time to complete. This paper presents the parallelization of a Monte Carlo method- based algorithm for simulating stellar cluster evolution on programmable Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). The kernels of this algorithm involve numerical methods of root-bisection and von Neumann rejection. Our experiments show that although these kernels exhibit data dependent decision making and unavoidable non-contiguous memory accesses, the GPU can still deliver substantial near-linear speed-ups which cannot be easily achieved on a CPU-based system. For problem sizes ranging from 10⁶ to 7×10⁶ stars, we obtain up to 28× speedups on an NVDIA GTX280 GPU over an AMD© PhenomTM Quad- Core Processor.

Bharath works on an interdisciplinary project bridging computer science and astrophysics. His faculty advisors are Prof. Fred Rasio & Prof. Vicky Kalogera from the Department of Physics and Astronomy and Prof. Alok Choudhary from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

CIERA Postdoc Laura Trouille's Student Researchers from Evanston Township High School Win Siemens Talent Competition Regional Finals

This past weekend two Evanston Township High School students, Julia Farenga Crowley and Patrick Loftus, won the regional finals for the Siemens Talent Competition, hosted by MIT. Their essay, poster, and 15 minute presentation on their summer research project with Northwestern University CIERA postdoctoral fellow Laura Trouille caught the attention of the judges and garnered them each a $5,000 college scholarship. Their work entitled "Visual Morphological Classification of Post-Starburst Galaxies" was chosen among 1900 submissions. On December 1^st they will travel to D.C. to compete for the $100,000 college scholarship. Their research with Dr. Trouille was to understand how galaxies evolve from star forming to quiescent, using post-starburst galaxies as a probe of this transition. They found that the evolution depended most on the mass of the galaxy, with the most massive galaxies undergoing merger activity and black hole feedback, while the less massive galaxies appear to be able to shut off their star formation through more secular processes. Dr. Mark Vondracek, the students' physics teacher at ETHS, is an essential component to the students' success, providing them a solid background in physics and encouragement and support in all their endeavors.

NSF CE21 Grant, funding began November 2011

We seek to spark student interest in computational thinking (CT) coursework and career routes by portraying CT as a vital skillset that pervades modern STEM fields. To this end, we are developing curricula based on CT and computational modeling (CM) tools for traditional high-school STEM courses. This project builds on our strong existing partnerships with local schools and teachers and on our NSF GK12 program, 'Reach for the Stars.'

See Computational Thinking in STEM for more information.

CIERA Dinner with President and Mrs. Schapiro
October 13, 2011

The CIERA Advisory Board, Faculty and Postdocs had cocktails, dinner with President Morty Schapiro and Mimi Schapiro. Later, they were joined by their children for a viewing at the Dearborn Observatory.

Aaron M. Geller publishes paper in Nature

Aaron M. Geller, CIERA Lindheimer Postdoctoral Fellow, and Robert D. Mathieu published an article in Nature. A summary about the Nature article can be found here. View a press release about this article from the Northwestern NewsCenter.

Tristan Matthews wins Illinois Space Grant Consortium Fellowship

CIERA graduate student Tristan Matthews has been awarded a $10,000 Fellowship from NASA's Illinois Space Grant Consortium for 2011-2012. More information about the Illinois Space Grant Consortium here.

Dr. Michael Smutko Interviewed by Tribune Local

Northwestern's own Distinguished Senior lecturer Michael Smutko speaks with Tribune Local about Dearborn Observatory, his research in high mass stars and adaptive optics, and why an investment in science should be a top priority.

A preview:

Laura Trouille Chairs AAS Special Session

CIERA postdoctoral fellow Laura Trouille presented a special session for women and minorities at the 218th AAS meeting held in Boston on networking and mentoring skills . A highlight of her talk can be found on page 16 of the AAS July/August Newsletter

Scott Coughlin and John Le have been awarded WCAS Summer Research Grants

Two undergraduate students in Vicky Kalogera's group, Scott Coughlin and John Le, have been awarded Weinberg College of Art and Science Summer Research Grants for their research in gravitational-wave sources and the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). The grant gives full financial support to oustanding students pursuing novel research.

John Le's research proposal can be found here

Scott Coughlin's research proposal can be found here

Dr. Michael Smutko has been promoted to Distinguished Senior Lecturer

We congratulate Dr. Michael Smutko's promotion to position of Distinguished Senior Lecturer. He also has been elected to the Associated Student Government's Faculty Honor Roll (his 5th time), and has been invited to give the keynote address at NU's Phi Betta Kappa induction ceremony

Professor Frederic Rasio and Colleagues Announce "The Physics of Astronomical Transients" Conference

Rapid advances in detector technology, computer processing power and data storage are fostering a data-driven revolution in astrophysics. This is enabling surveys that probe ever-larger areas of the sky and ever-fainter sources, opening up a vast discovery space. These advances also add temporal information to what was previously a relatively static picture of the sky. In addition to aiding the discovery of whole new classes of variable astronomical phenomena, temporal information probes the fundamental physics of the underlying objects. Coupling these surveys with innovative exploration strategies and novel theoretical work will open new windows onto the universe. This meeting will focus on issues related to the physics and discovery of astronomical transients. Topics will range from the extragalactic: detection of gamma-ray bursts, and supernovae in distant galaxies, variable AGN, to the galactic: variable stars, novae, and other cataclysmic events. Visit the conference website

Michael Tremmel Wins Undergraduate Research Symposium Poster Award

Professor Kalogera's undergraduate student Michael Tremmel won third place in the Nautral Science and Engineering category in this year's Undergraduate Research Symposium, with his poster "The Evolution of X-Ray Binaries on Cosmological Timescales". You can read his full presentation abstract here

Computational Thinking Across the Curriculum

This August, faculty, postdocs, and staff from CIERA, NU's School of Education, and OSEP will run a workshop for 6th-12th grade math, science, CTE and CS teachers to support them in incorporating computational thinking learning modules into their STEM classroom curricula.

President Schapiro, Mayor Tisdahl Visit Reach for the Stars

Northwestern University president Morton Schapiro and Evanston mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl got a glimpse of the benefits of a unique new collaboration between the University and local schools this week. They watched Northwestern graduate students teach Evanston Township High School (ETHS) students about cutting-edge scientific research as part of Northwestern's Reach for the Stars program in local schools. Continue reading at the SESP website

CIERA Featured in Big Ten Network video

CIERA's research into black holes has been featured in a video produced for the Big Ten Network. In the clip, a look is given to both the teaching and research aspects of CIERA. Professor Vicky Kalogera and Farhad Yusef-Zadeh, along with graduate students Francesca Valsecchi and Meagan Morscher, offer insight into the stellar phenomenum known as black holes. Graduate student Ben Farr is profiled for his work in teaching students at Evanston Township Highschool about black holes as part of his work with the Reach for the Stars! program.

Professor Mel Ulmer's US/France Collaboration DAFT/FADAS has been awarded an $850k grant

The Dark Energy American French Team/French American Dark Energy Team jointly led by Professor Ulmer, Prof. Doug Clowe (Ohio State University), and Christophe Adami (LAM/Université de Provence) in France has been awarded an $850k grant from NASA's Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences/Astrophysics Research and Enabling Technologies. The primary goal of the project is to make a geometrical determination of the nature of Dark Energy, using weak lensing tomography, applied to the background galaxies around the clusters.

Astro Group Graduate Students Receive NSF Fellowships

Ben Farr and Carl Rodriguez, two students in Vicky Kalogera's research group have been accepted into the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. To learn more about their research, click on their portraits or abstract title below.

Ben Farr		Carl Rodriguez
Bayesian Parameter Estimation for Gravitational Wave Sources in LIGO		Experimental Verification of the No-Hair Theorem

Daniel Stevens has been awarded a Northwestern Undergraduate Research Grant for Summer 2011. The grant is awarded in support of outstanding and novel research projects of a student's own design. Daniel is a junior pursuing a major in Physics and Astronomy and in Mathematics and does research in Prof. Kalogera's group. 

Astronomy Undergraduate Awarded Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship

Kyle Kremer has received a 2011 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, one of two awarded to Northwestern undergraduates. Each year this prize scholarship recognizes the 300 most outstanding undergraduate students pursuing careers in Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Engineering in the United States. Kyle is a junior pursuing a major in Physics and Astronomy and in Music Performance (trumpet) and does research on compact objects in binary systems in Prof. Kalogera's group.

We are pleased to announce Adrian Barker, Will Farr, and Elizabeth Hicks as our CIERA Fellows for 2011.

Evghenii Gaburov Selected as a NASA Hubble Fellow

Evghenii Gaburov has been selected as a NASA Hubble Fellow in January 2011, with CIERA as his host instutition.

Flip for Physics provides the infrastructure and materials for students to videotape the research done in Northwestern University physics labs, Fermi Lab, Argonne National Lab, and Underwriters Laboratory. The students also interview one of the lab's scientists. The goal is to support student interest in science career paths and dispel some of the stereotypes and myths about 'who is a scientist?'. Through editing their video and interacting with other student groups through the 'Flip for Physics' wiki, the project also supports students in developing 21st century digital media skills and new media literacies. The final videos are entered into a competition (with Flip cameras as the prize), are posted on each labs' website, and are used in an educational campaign. The first competition is currently underway, with 4 different schools participating and 6 different labs.

Click here for more information.

Profs. Vicky Kalogera, Dave Meyer, and Fred Rasio, have created the new Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA), which started in September. CIERA will be based in the historic Dearborn Observatory. Click on the image above for the full article, produced by the Northwestern University Office of Research.