News and Events

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
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
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)
Title: Tales from our Dusty, Warped Past: Lensing Environments of Planck-selected Submillimeter Galaxies Observed with Gemini
Supervisor: James Lowenthal (Smith College)
Great job!

Jea Adams (Amherst) Honorable mention
Zoe Kearney (UMass) Honorable mention
https://www.dawnires.com/scholarsblog/dawn-ires-scholars-receive-chambliss-astronomy-achievement-student-awards
Congratulations Class of 2020!
Graduate student Sarah Betti won the competitive Dissertation Research Grant for 2020-2021.
Congratulations!
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!
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...
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"