FCAD Colloquium Spring 2025 Schedule

All talks take place on Thursdays at 4pm in LGRT-1033

6 February | Prof. Tom Maccarone

Professor at Texas Tech University

X-Ray binary systems in globular clusters

Title: Understanding Relativistic Jets via Rapid Variability of X-ray Binaries

Relativistic jets are one of the most important phenomena in astrophysics, as they are a key source of feedback that affects structure formation, they produce the highest energy photons, charged particles and neutrinos, and they provide the means to detect the most extreme explosions in nature.  X-ray binaries represent a key source class for understanding jet production and emission, as they have the most easily accessible variability timescales, the best measured rotation rates, and allow the possibility to compare neutron star and black hole jets, where the accretion is onto objects with similar masses but with fundamental differences in the compact object properties due to the surfaces in the neutron stars.  I will discuss how simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of accreting black holes and neutron stars can be used to map out the structures of jets, understand their acceleration and understand how they convert the bulk kinetic energy in the outflows into radiation.  I will also discuss how filling in the gap between the radio and near-infrared bands that have traditionally been used to probe the jets can lead to a dramatic improvement in our understanding of jets.

13 February | Dr. Edmund Hodges-Kluck

Researcher at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

X-Ray observations of gas in galaxies, XRISM, Athena 

20 February | Prof. Pieter van Dokkum

Sol Goldman Family Professor at Yale University

Galaxy formation and evolution

27 February | Prof. Catherine Espaillat 

Professor at Boston University

Young stars, planet formation, protoplanetary disks

6 March | Dr. Megan Bedell

Research Scientist at CCA

Spectroscopy of Sun-like stars, exoplanets

13 March | Prof. Elisabeth Newton

Assistant Professor at Dartmouth College

Stellar astrophysics, exoplanets

20 March | Spring Break -- no colloquium

27 March | Dr. Viraj Pandya

NASA Hubble Fellow at Columbia University

Galaxy simulations, ISM feedback

3 April | Prof. Desika Narayanan

Associate Professor at the University of Florida

Theoretical models of galaxy evolution, star formation, and the ISM

10 April | Dr. Matthew Petroff

Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Observational cosmology, CMB, BICEP

17 April | Dr. Rebecca Larson

Postdoctoral Research at Rochester Institute of Technology

Epoch of reionization galaxy observations

24 April | Prof. Mateusz Ruszkowski

Professor at the University of Michigan

Black hole and stellar feedback, numerical simulation

1 May | Prof. Stacey Alberts

Associate Research Professor at Steward Observatory, University of Arizona -- starting a new position at STScI in the spring.

Galaxy evolution, cosmic dust, JWST MIRI

8 May | Prof. Megan Reiter

Assistant Professor at Rice University

Exoplanets, stellar feedback