The Astronomy Department has funded a planetarium show at the Science Museum of Virginia and an exhibit at the Virginia Discovery Museum.
Curious about Black Holes? Then come see the new Black Holes planetarium show at the Science Museum of Virginia, funded by the Department of Astronomy and NASA. The show will run at least twice daily from Feb. 25 to June 13 in the Ethyl Planetarium at the Science Museum of Virginia, 2500 West Broad Street, Richmond. You will meet Stella, a black hole of-a-certain-age, who used to be a big star! Find out about Stella's days as a giant star, how she explodes and becomes a black hole, and about the mysteries she still keeps to herself! Support for the Black Holes planetarium show was provided by NASA through an education and public outreach supplemental award to Dr. Craig Sarazin issued by the Chandra X-ray Observatory Center, which is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.Why do we have seasons? Why does the moon appear in different shapes? How does the earth's rotation create weather patterns? You can find the answers to these questions and more at the Virginia Discovery Museum on the east end of the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville. The Department of Astronomy and NASA have sponsored an exhibit "Patterns, Cycles, and Change" that will run from January 24 to May 16. In the exhibit, located in the Back Gallery at the museum, you can explore the movements of our solar system and how it affects life here on Earth. Help move the planets around the sun. Create weather while learning about climate. Journey through the changing seasons as we take a playful look at our planet in motion. Support for the "Patterns, Cycles, and Change" Exhibit was provided by NASA through an education and public outreach supplemental award to Dr. Edward Murphy and Dr. Robert O'Connell from NASA's Far Ultraviolet Explorer Mission operated by Johns Hopkins University.
Ianna moves to NSF
Professor Emeritus Phil Ianna has taken a position as Program Director
for the Stellar Astronomy and Astrophysics Program in the Division of
Astronomical Sciences at the National
Science Foundation. His term there will last for about two years.
New Positions
This fall we have a spate of new hirings:
- Michael Skrutskie joins the faculty this year. He is the principle investigator for the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) which he started while a professor at the University of Massachusetts. He is helping to start an optical and infrared instrumentation program within the department at UVa.
- Anne Verbiscer is a planetary scientist who joins us as a research scientist this fall. She also comes to us from UMass.
- Noam Soker is a visiting professor this year. He is on leave from the University of Haifa. His reasearch includes planetary nebulae and galaxy clusters.
- Motokazu Takizawa comes to us on a postdoctoral fellowship from Japan. He is working with Craig Sarazin on theoretical studies of galaxy clusters.
- Thomas Reiprich recently completed his Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany. He also joins Craig Sarazin's group to work on observational studies of clusters of galaxies.
- Helio Rocha-Pinto comes to us from Brazil as a postdoc. He is working with Steve Majewski.
- Cameron Hummels will be working as a data analyst for Steve Majewski. He replaces Cathy Slesnick, who has gone on to graduate school at Caltech.
Retirement
Professor Phil Ianna has retired from
the faculty. He will be staying on as Professor Emeritus, and will
continue to supervise graduate students.
Spring 2001
Awards
Postdoc Liz Blanton has been
awarded a prestigious Chandra
fellowship by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, to start in August of
2001. She will be remaining at UVa.
New Position
Yutaka Fujita joins us as a
postdoc from the National Astronomical Observatory in Tokyo. He is here
on a fellowship from the Japanese government for one year to work with
Craig Sarazin
Fall 2000
Astronomy Department receives $10 million gift
The Astronomy Department recently received a $10 million gift from
Frank and Wynette Levinson. Frank Levinson received his Ph.D. in
astronomy from the University in 1980. Through this gift, the
Department will be expanding in the area of astronomical
instrumentation with the addition of new
faculty, staff and laboratory facilities. These efforts are to
support Virginia's planned entry into one of various large telescope
projects currently under review.
As part of the Department's growth initiative, we are investigating several options for large telescope collaborations. UVa is a member of a consortium of universities, including Cornell University and the University of Texas, planning a 15-m class optical/IR telescope for the Atacama desert in Chile.
Read more about it in UVa Top News.
New Positions
We have a new member of the faculty this fall. Ken Seidelmann joins us
as a Research Professor after retiring from the U.S. Naval
Observatory. He has been the Chair of the Full-sky Astrometric Mapping
Explorer (FAME) Science
Working Team at the U.S.N.O. and will continue his work on FAME while at
UVa.
We are also joined this fall by two new postdocs: Jaehyon Rhee, who is here to work with Steve Majewski, and Jean-Pierre de Villiers who will work with Steve Balbus and John Hawley.
Also starting this fall is a new member of the faculty. Former UVa grad student Ed Murphy (Ph.D. 1996) has been hired as an assistant professor of the General Faculty. He will be in charge of public outreach for the department, as well as technology support for our undergraduate program.
Summer 2000
Passing
Associate Professor Emeritus Sam
Goldstein died June 13, 2000. Sam was an early pioneer in radio
interferometry, while his research in recent years focused primarily on
celestial mechanics and magnetic fields.
New Position
Cathy Slesnick has been hired as a data analyst in Steve
Majewski's group.
Spring 2000
Awards
Mike Siegel won second prize in the Physical
Sciences division of the Graduate
Research Exhibition at UVa.
New positions
Elizabeth Blanton arrived in May to work as a postdoc with Craig
Sarazin. She joins us after a brief stint at Carnegie Mellon following receipt of her
Ph.D. from Columbia.
Kiriaki Xiluri joined us in January as a Research Scientist. She is doing systems administration and observatory support.
Fall 1999
New positions
Three new postdocs have joined us this fall. Arunav Kundu recently got
his PhD from the University of Maryland and has come here to work with
Steve Majewski on the SIM grid star
project. Márcio Catelan, a Hubble Fellow, is working with Bob Rood. Robert Link (PhD Indiana) is working with
Roger Chevalier.
Spring 1999
Awards
5th year grad student Eric Richards has been awarded a highly
prestigious Hubble Fellowship from STScI. He will be bringing his
fellowship to Arizona State University to continue his work on the
Hubble Deep Field with Roger Windhorst.
Jimmy Irwin (Ph.D. 1997) received a Chandra Fellowship from the Chandra (formerly AXAF) Science Center. He will continue in his position as a post-doc at the University of Michigan.
New Position
Former postdoc Paul Ricker has gotten a job at the University of
Chicago writing supercomputer applications commissioned by the
Department of Energy. He is continuing his collaborations with
Craig Sarazin while in Chicago.
Fall 1998
New Position
Dana Dinescu arrived from Yale in early September to work as a postdoc with
Steve Majewski. Her research focuses on globular clusters and proper
motions.
Albemarle County passes lighting ordinance
Thanks to lots of hard work by Phil
Ianna, the Albemarle County board of supervisors passed a major
ordinance geared towards protecting our dark skies. The ordinance
requires that all new light fixtures that emit more than 3000 initial
lumens be fully shielded to project zero light above the horizontal.
Grad student gets multiple grants
Ronak Shah, who is working with Al Wootten as an NRAO pre-doc, has received
two grants so far this year. The first is a $2500 Degussa Corporation
Scholarship for the Advancement of Basic Research. The second is also $2500,
from the Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research program. The latter is for his
thesis project, "Investigations of Protostellar Regions with Deuterated
Molecules."
Students Awarded Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research
Two astronomy department students were awarded Grants-in-Aid of Research by
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. Chris Palma, a third-year Ph.D.
student, and Jamie Ostheimer, a 4th-year undergraduate, were awarded grants
out of the more competitive of two pools. Palma's grant goes to support his
work on the Megaparsec environment of the Giant FR II Radio Galaxy
NVSS 2146+82. Ostheimer is searching for giant stars in the Magellanic
Stream. Both students are working with Assistant Professor Steve Majewski.
New Positions
Richard de Grijs joins us from Groningen as a postdoc to work with Bob
O'Connell. Ricky Patterson returns from Australia where he has been working
on the parallax program. He continues to work with Phil Ianna on parallaxes
and is beginning work as a postdoc with Steve Majewski.
Articles About
Astronomy at UVa
From The Cavalier Daily:
- Craig Sarazin's research group was featured in this article about the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
- The Levinson's $10 million gift to the department was written about here.
- Craig Sarazin was featured in the Winter 2002 issue.
- The research of Steve Balbus and John Hawley was discussed in the Fall 1998 issue.
- An article appeared about Steve Majewski in the Winter 1998 issue.
- Graduate students Josh Kempner and Mike Siegel were pictured on the front page of Inside UVa in their special issue on grad student research.
- Steven Majewski was featured in the March 6, 1998 issue.
- The Astronomy Library was featured in the February 1999 issue.
- Enivronmental Sciences faculty Stephen Macko appeared in the April 1998 issue for his research into evidence of fossilized bacteria in the Mars meteorite Alan Hills 84001.
- Opportunities wrote an article about Roger Chevalier being awarded the 1996 Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics for his work on Supernova 1987A.
- Professors Steven Majewski and Michael Skrutskie were featured in an article about research into the structure of the Milky Way.
