Part of CIERA’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program includes support for participating students to travel to the annual winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and present their research projects. This year, 11 REU students from the 2024 cohort attended the 245th AAS meeting, held January 12-16, 2025 in National Harbor, Maryland.
At the meeting, exemplary undergraduate and graduate research posters are recognized by the AAS Chambliss Award. On January 16, the AAS announced that one undergraduate Chambliss Award recipient this year was none other than CIERA REU student Jessica Cotturone. 2025 is the 3rd consecutive year that a CIERA REU student has been recognized in the Chambliss competition, with Sebastian Banaszak and Vishnu Gade winning in 2024 and Claire Zwicker receiving an honorable mention in 2023.
“Winning the Chambliss award is a true honor, and I am exceptionally grateful to my mentors Mike Zevin, Sylvia Biscoveanu, and Vicky Kalogera for sharing their expert knowledge and always believing in me,” shared Cotturone. Her winning research project, “Characterizing Compact Object Binaries in the Lower Mass Gap with Gravitational Waves“, aligns closely with ongoing CIERA research. “Being a part of such a vibrant scientific community and forming meaningful connections during the CIERA REU has inspired me to keep pursuing my passion for STEM research, and I want to thank Aaron Geller, Chase Kimball, my REU cohort, and the rest of CIERA for making this invaluable experience possible.” Jessica is currently a senior at Augustana College. Next, she plans to attend graduate school and conduct interdisciplinary research at the intersection of computer science and astronomy.
The 11 REU students in attendance and their poster information is below. Click on each student’s name to learn more about their research:
University of California – Berkeley (Astronomy), Junior
Advisor: Dan Horton
Project: Assessing Lake Breeze Arrival Time Delays in the Weather Research and Forecasting-Community Multiscale Air Quality Model: Implications for Ozone Forecasting and Regulation
Augustana College (Applied Math, Computer Science, Music), Senior
Advisors: Mike Zevin, Sylvia Biscoveanu, Vicky Kalogera
Project: Characterizing Compact Object Binaries in the Lower Mass Gap with Gravitational Waves
Illinois Institute of Technology (Astronomy, Physics), Senior
Advisor: Tjitske Starkenburg
Project: Unraveling the Dynamics of Stellar Streams in Merging Galaxies
Illinois Institute of Technology (Astronomy), Junior
Advisors: Seth Gossage, Vicky Kalogera
Project: Constraining Magnetic Braking through the Cataclysmic Variable Period Gap
Haverford College (Astronomy, Physics), Junior
Advisors: Noah Rogers, Allison Strom
Project: Test of Ionization Correction Functions for Sulfur and Argon with JWST
University of St. Thomas – Houston, recently graduated
Advisors: Sarah Blunt, Jason Wang
Project: Simulating the Reflected-light Brightness of an Exoplanet as a Function of Phase
Georgia Institute of Technology (Physics), Senior
Advisors: Imran Sultan, Claude-André Faucher-Giguère
Project: Turbulence in the Circumgalactic Medium of FIRE Simulations
Columbia (Physics), Senior
Advisor: André de Gouvêa
Project: Neutrino Oscillations in Matter
Loyola University Chicago (Theoretical Physics, Applied Math), Junior
Advisors: Sanaea Rose, Fred Rasio
Project: Spins of Intermediate Mass Black Holes in Galactic Nuclei
DePaul University (Astronomy, Math), Junior
Advisors: Deepika Bollimpalli, Sasha Tchekhovskoy
Project: Radial Coherence in Accretion Disks Around Black Holes
Princeton (Astrophysics), Junior
Advisors: Sylvia Biscoveanu, Vicky Kalogera
Project: Bayesian Spin Sorting: Disentangling Non-Spinning and Spinning Binary Black Hole Systems