News and Events

Wednesday, August 19, 2020
Professor Alexandra Pope is one of the 39 UMass Faculty selected for  an ADVANCE Fellowship for the academic year 2020-2021. The NSF-funded ADVANCE program is working on issues of equity and inclusion at the University of Massachusetts and on the impact of Covid-19 on these problems.
More Info:
Smiling woman with medium length blond hair wearing short sleeve shirt standingi n field
 
Friday, August 14, 2020

Talks will be held at 4pm on Thursdays through Zoom. Titles,abstracts, and Zoom connection info will be posted closer to the dates.

  • Thursday August 27: Astro Jamboree Week 1
  • Thursday September 3: Astro Jamboree Week 2
  • Thursday September 10: Amanda Kepley (NRAO Charlottesville)
  • Thursday September 17: Brian Svoboda (NRAO)
  • Thursday September 24: Dara Norman (NSF NOIRLab)
  • Thursday October 1: Zhiyuan Ma (UMass Amherst)
  • Thursday October 8: Zheng Zheng (University of Utah)
  • Thursday October 15: Sandro Tacchella (CfA)
  • Thursday October 22: Daniel Anglés-Alcázar (CCA Flatiron/UConn)
  • Thursday October 29: Feng Long (CfA)
  • Thursday November 5: Irene Shivaei (U Arizona)
  • Thursday November 12:  2nd Year Graduate Project Presentation
  • Thursday November 19:  2nd Year Graduate Project Presentation
Friday, June 12, 2020

Due to social distancing, there will be no presentations at the Sunwheel this summer. However, the public is welcome to visit our site for sunrise and sunset to celebrate the longest days of the year. Visitors should wear masks, maintain social distancing, and be prepared for the possibility of wet footing and mosquitoses.

More info from Professor Steve Schneider: http://www.umass.edu/sunwheel/pages/gatherings

Illustration showing a quarter hour after sunrise at the Sunwheel during the 2018 summer solstice. The sun rises at an angle approximately equalling our latitude.  (Photo: S. E. Schneider)Shortly after sunset at the Sunwheel during the 2019 summer solstice. Sunlight reflecting off the bottoms of the clouds produces a “sun pillar” similar to how light reflects off the ocean at sunset.  (Photo: S. E. Schneider)

Left: About a quarter hour after sunrise at the Sunwheel during the 2018 summer solstice. The sun rises at an angle approximately equalling our latitude.
(Photo: S. E. Schneider)

Right: Shortly after sunset at the Sunwheel during the 2019 summer solstice. Sunlight reflecting off the bottoms of the clouds produces a “sun pillar” similar to how light reflects off the ocean at sunset.
(Photo: S. E. Schneider)


 

Monday, May 11, 2020
This year's Mary Dailey Irvine Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Research goes to Olivia Cooper (Smith College). Congratulations!

Title: Tales from our Dusty, Warped Past: Lensing Environments of Planck-selected Submillimeter Galaxies Observed with Gemini

Supervisor: James Lowenthal (Smith College)

Great job!

 

Headshot of smiling woman with medium length blond hair, on blurred-out green background
 
Thursday, May 7, 2020
Several FCAD students were honored with Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Awards at the 235th AAS winter meeting in Hawaii: https://aas.org/grants-and-prizes/chambliss-astronomy-achievement-student-awards
 
Iver Warburton (Smith) Recipient
Jea Adams (Amherst) Honorable mention
Zoe Kearney (UMass) Honorable mention
 
In addition, two students from the DAWN-IRES Scholars Program, run by Prof. Whitaker (UMass), were also honored:
https://www.dawnires.com/scholarsblog/dawn-ires-scholars-receive-chambliss-astronomy-achievement-student-awards
 
Way to go!


 
Thursday, May 7, 2020

Congratulations Class of 2020!

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Graduate student Sarah Betti won the competitive Dissertation Research Grant for 2020-2021.

Congratulations!

Portrait photo of woman with medium lenght hair standing in front of field of flowers

Monday, May 4, 2020

FCAD undergraduate student Jea Adams, an Amherst College Junior, has won three awards for her excellent scholarship:

The Lorna M Peterson Prize from the Five Colleges
A Goldwater Scholarship See campus news artice here.
AAS Chambliss Prize Honorable Mention for her poster at the 2020 Winter Meeting

Jea has a broad research resume including research on exoplanets with Prof. Kate Follette (Amherst college) and distant galaxy clusters with Prof. Alexandra Pope (UMass).

Congratulations Jea!

 


 

Monday, May 4, 2020

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences this week announced that internationally recognized scholar Daniela Calzetti, professor and head of astronomy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has been elected to the panel “in recognition of distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.”

https://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/umass-amherst-astronomer-daniel...


 

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Portrait photo of Dr. Calzetti, short hair with purple sweater
All lectures begin at 4 p.m. in the Great Hall, Old Chapel, and are free and open to the public. A reception immediately follows each lecture in the Multipurpose Room, 1st Floor, Old Chapel.

"How Do Stars Form? Beyond the "Spherical Cow" Model"


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