Graduate Student Research Forum

Location: Center for Astrophysics
Time:
Tuesdays at 4:00pm
Refreshments are provided. Talks begin at 4:15.


The research forum is also a graduate course: Astronomy 301hf.
Course instructor for the year 2007-08 is Prof. Julia C. Lee (office: B-429).


Spring 2008 Schedule

DATE SPEAKER TITLE ROOM
Feb. 5 Dr. Rosanne Di Stefano Type Ia Supernovae, Accretion-Induced Collapse, and Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources: What do they have in common? Pratt
Feb. 12 Dr. Maxim Markevitch Sloshing of cool gas in galaxy clusters, WHIM around galaxies, and other interesting X-ray projects Pratt
Feb. 19 Dr. Slavko Bogdanov (Pulsar) Timing is Everything: General Relativity, Planets, Spacecraft Navigation, and Supranuclear Densities Pratt
Feb. 26 Dr. Hadi Hadizadeh Cultural Revolution of 1980-87 in Iran Phillips
Mar. 4 Eliza Miller-Ricci Extrasolar Super-Earths - How We Can Learn About Our Larger Cousins Orbiting Distant Stars Pratt
Mar. 11 Postdoc-Student Mixer - Phillips
Mar. 18 Dr. Matt Holman Pan-STARRS-1 and the Outer Solar System Pratt
Mar. 25 - Spring Break -
April 1 Dr. Doug Finkbeiner From Dust to Dark Matter: What we can learn about fundamental physics from Galactic emission Pratt
April 8 Dr. Warren Brown Extremely Metal Poor Galaxies Pratt
April 15 Dr. Ron Walsworth Overview of Research in the Walsworth Group (* NOTE: Talk will begin promptly at 4pm, refreshments afterward) Pratt (w/ lab tour)
April 22 Sasha Tchekhovskoy Simulations of Electromagnetic Jets from Gamma-ray Burst Engines Pratt
April 29 Dr. Michael Meyer Recognizing the Right Tool for the Job: Current Research Opportunities in the Origins of Stars, Planets, and Life Pratt

Fall 2007 Schedule

DATE SPEAKER TITLE ROOM
Sept. 25 CfA Mixer Short talks by members of the CfA Phillips
Oct. 2 Dr. Julia Lee Fun with X-ray Observations of Black Holes: from Dust to Accretion Disks Pratt
Oct. 9 Dr. Robert Kirshner Exploding Stars for Fun and Profit Pratt
Oct. 16 Dr. David Latham Kepler and HARPS-North: Upcoming Opportunities for Extrasolar Planet Research Pratt
Oct. 23 Philip Hopkins What is AGN Feedback and Why do we Care? Pratt
Oct. 30 Dr. Alyssa Goodman Three Stories of Star Formation: Are any of them true? Pratt
Nov. 6 Dr. Lori Allen Star formation, the structure and kinematics of young stellar clusters, Schmidt Laws, and Josh Beckett Pratt
Nov. 13 Randall Cooper Oscillations During Type I X-ray Bursts on Accreting Neutron Stars Pratt
Nov. 20 Dr. James Moran Masers in the Ionized Envelope of the Weird Star MWC349A Pratt
Nov. 27 Dr. Jeffrey McClintock First and Future Measurements of Black Hole Spin Pratt
Dec. 4 Dr. Dimitar Sasselov Lessons about Super-Earth habitability from boiling a jar of milk Phillips
Dec. 11 Dr. Patrick Slane Shocking Secrets About Stellar Explosions: Stars Spill Their Guts Pratt
Dec. 18 Jonathan Devor Life experience as a graduate student Pratt

Spring 2007 Schedule

DATE SPEAKER TITLE ROOM
Feb. 6. Post-doc Mixer Short talks by CfA post-docs Pratt
Feb. 13 Dr. Giovanni Fazio Looking for the First Galaxies and the First Stars Pratt
Feb. 20 Dr. Josh Grindlay Surveys for isolated black holes and compact binaries Pratt
Mon Feb. 26 Ryan Hickox Finding obscured quasars with Spitzer and Chandra Phillips
Mar. 6 Dr. Chris Stubbs Fundamental Physics with Astrophysical Techniques Pratt
Mar. 13 Loren Hoffman Black hole systems in galactic nuclei Pratt
Mar. 20 Dr. Dave Charbonneau Probing the Atmospheres of Transiting Planets Pratt
Mar. 27 - Spring Break -
April 3 Joel Hartmann A Deep Optical Variability Survey of an Open Cluster Pratt
April 10 Dr. Lincoln Greenhill Instruments for 21cm Cosmology Pratt
April 17 Julie Nantais Galactic Archaeology:
Using Globular Clusters to Understand the Formation and Evolution of Galaxies
Pratt
April 24 Maryam Modjaz The SN-GRB Connection:
Environments and Host Metallicities
Pratt
May 1 Dr. Kate Kirby Laboratory Astrophysics in Forefront Astronomy and at the CfA Pratt

Fall 2006 Schedule

DATE SPEAKER TITLE ROOM
Sept. 26 CfA Mixer Short talks by members of the CfA Phillips
Oct. 3 Dr. Avi Loeb Three Open Problems in Astronomy which Should Matter to Physicists Pratt
Oct. 10 Dr. Doug Finkbeiner Astrophysical signals of WIMP dark matter annihilation:
Prospects for detection
Pratt
Oct. 17 Dr. Matt Holman A census of the outer solar system with Pan-STARRS-1 Phillips
Oct. 24 Dr. Alyssa Goodman Why the Problem of Star Formation on ~pc Scales Cannot be Solved without Simulations Pratt
Oct. 31 Dr. Jim Moran Looking Deeply into the Accretion Disk around the Black Hole in the Galactic Center Pratt
Nov. 7 Dr. Ramesh Narayan Black Hole Spin Pratt
Nov. 14 Jonathan Foster In Dust We Trust Pratt
Nov. 21 Nitya Kallivayalil Some old and new ideas about the Magellanic Clouds, and what they mean for the Milky Way Pratt
Nov. 28 Dr. Rosanne Di Stefano YourLSST and YourPan-STARRS:
What we can learn from all-sky monitoring
Pratt
Dec. 5 Dr. David Wilner Debris Disks around Nearby Stars Phillips
Dec. 12 Dr. Dan Fabricant The Giant Magellan Telescope Pratt

About Research Forum

The Research Forum is held weekly during the academic year. The time listed above is when refreshments are available; talks usually begin 15 minutes later. Anyone at the CfA is encouraged to attend and participate in the discussion. To maintain an informal atmosphere and to facilitate discussion, speakers are encouraged to limit their talks to about forty minutes and to use minimal visual aids (usually one transparency/handout). Talks are organized by the second-year graduate students.

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