Protoplanetary Disks Group at the CfA

Members

Staff

Postdocs

Catherine Espaillat (Sagan Fellow)
Joanna Brown (SMA Fellow)
Adam Kraus (Clay Fellow)
Til Birnstiel

Graduate Students

Undergraduate Students

Diana Powell
Corinne Tu

Andrews, Czekala, Rosenfeld, Harris, Qi, Wilner, Espaillat, Kraus, MacGregor, Tu, Powell
(not pictured: Brown, Maury, Birnstiel)

Alumni

Meredith Hughes (Harvard graduate student → Miller Fellow, UC Berkeley → faculty, Wesleyan University)
Karin Öberg (Hubble Fellow → faculty, University of Virginia)
Stefan Kraus (SMA Fellow → faculty, University of Exeter)
Yu (Sophia) Dai (summer intern → pre-doctoral fellow, SAO)

Research

Circumstellar disks are a generic outcome of the star formation process. They preserve an historical imprint from the collapse of a molecular cloud core, play a fundamental role as accretion conduits that help set the stellar mass function, and comprise the material reservoirs used to build planets. We study many aspects of circumstellar disks using a wide variety of observational techniques, with a special focus on the analysis of radio interferometer data.

News

2013-05: Diana Powell awarded the 2013 Goldberg Prize for her junior thesis.
2013-05: Karin Öberg accepts a faculty position at Harvard University.
2013-05: Catherine Espaillat accepts a faculty position at Boston University.
2013-03: Robert Harris accepts a postdoctoral fellowship position with CARMA at the University of Illinois.
2012-10: Stefan Kraus accepts a faculty position at the University of Exeter.
2012-07: Sky & Telescope cover story features our SMA observations of transition disks.
2012-05: Karin Öberg gives annual prize pH Lecture at CfA.
2012-02: NRAO public relations piece on TW Hya deuterium paper.
2011-11: Harvard Gazette article on our ALMA Cycle 0 programs.
2011-09: David Wilner's successful ALMA Cycle 0 program is featured by NRAO and CfA in press releases.
2011-05: Karin Öberg accepts a faculty position at the University of Virginia.
2011-04: Meredith Hughes accepts a faculty position at Wesleyan University.
2011-03: IRAM newsletter article on our new 345 GHz observations of the LkCa 15 disk.
2010-10: Sean Andrews and David Wilner are awarded the Smithsonian Institution Secretary's Research Prize.
2010-05: Meredith Hughes receives the Fireman Fellowship prize for outstanding Harvard Ph.D. thesis.
2010-05: Sean Andrews gives annual prize pH Lecture at CfA.
2010-04: Sean Andrews accepts a staff position at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
2010-01: Ian Czekala awarded a Chambliss Student Achievement Award for his poster at the 215th AAS meeting.
2009-08: Science at the Smithsonian article on the SMA Oph disk survey.
2009-07: SAO Weekly Science Update on the SMA Oph disk survey.
2009-06: Sky & Telescope article on the SMA Oph disk survey.
2009-06: CfA/UCLA press release: Radio Telescope Images Reveal Planet-Forming Disk Orbiting Twin Suns.

Large Project Teams

Disks@EVLA      (PI: Claire Chandler, 17 co-Is include Andrews, Wilner)
e-MERLIN PEBBLES      (PI: Jane Greaves, 25 co-Is include Wilner)
Herschel GASPS      (PI: Bill Dent, 38 co-Is include Andrews)
Herschel DEBRIS      (PI: Brenda Matthews, 28 co-Is include Wilner)

Publications

All Publications (ADS Listing)

Recent articles lead by group members

First Detection of c-C₃H₂ in a Circumstellar Disk
Qi, Öberg, Wilner, & Rosenfeld 2013, ApJ, 765, L14

H₂CO and N₂H⁺ in Protoplanetary Disks: Evidence for a CO-ice Regulated Chemistry
Qi, Öberg, & Wilner 2013, ApJ, 765, 34

Lopsided Dust Rings in Transition Disks
Birnstiel, Dullemond, & Pinilla 2013, A&A, 550, L8

Millimeter Emission Structure in the First ALMA Image of the AU Mic Debris Disk
MacGregor, Wilner, Rosenfeld, Andrews, Matthews, Hughes, Chiang, Graham, Kalas, Kennedy, & Sibthorpe 2013, ApJL, 762, L21

Tracing High-Energy Radiation from T Tauri Stars Using Mid-Infrared Neon Emission from Disks
Espaillat, Ingleby, Furlan, McClure, Spatzier, Nieusma, Calvet, Bergin, Hartmann, Miller, & Muzerolle 2013, ApJ, 762, 62

Last updated on March 12, 2013