Department of Astronomy
Department of Astronomy

Graduate Job Listing

Most of our graduating Ph.D. students find jobs in astronomy, and go on to successful careers in astronomy. Since 1990, about 85% of our new Ph.D.’s have found astronomy research positions, and 100% have obtained jobs related to their graduate training. First positions after the Ph.D. are typically at academic institutions or national laboratories. You can find a list of recent desertions here. Below is a listing of graduates and their current jobs:

Name

Ph.D. year

Current Position
Thankful Cromartie 2020 NASA Hubble Fellowship; Einstein Fellow
Paul Zivick 2020 Texas A&M University
Sean Linden 2020 University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Chris Hayes 2020  
Hayley Williamson 2019  
Trey Wenger 2019 Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory
Lauren Bittle 2018 Publicis Sapient
Scott Suriano 2018 University of Tokyo
Meng Sun 2018 University of Wisconsin, Madison
Dominic Pesce 2018 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Andrew Burkhardt 2018 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
H. Jacob Borish 2017 University of Pittsburgh
Chenliang Huang 2017 Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Brian Prager 2017 Comcast Spotlight, Chesterbrook, PA
Nicholas Troup 2017 Assistant Professor, Salisbury University
Loreto Barcos 2016 ALMA Postdoctoral Fellow, Joint ALMA Observatory
Joanna Corby 2016 Visiting Professor, University of South Florida
Guillermo Damke 2016 Postdoc, Universidad de La Serena
Christopher Irwin 2016 Professor at U. Alabama
Kristen Jones 2016 Postdoctoral Associate, Arecibo Observatory
Siraprapa Sanpa-arsa 2016 Researcher, National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand
Kimberly Sokal 2016 Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Texas, Austin
Timothy Pennucci 2015 Postdoc, Eötvös Loránd University
Charles Romero 2015 Postdoc, Green Bank Observatory
Xiaping Tang 2015 Postdoc, Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics
Rachael Beaton 2014 Hubble/Carnegie-Princeton Fellow, Princeton University
William Dirienzo 2014 Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin, Sheboygan
George Privon 2014 Postdoc, University of Florida
George Trammell 2014 Associate Development Engineer, UCLA
Lisa May Walker 2014 NIRCam Postdoc, University of Arizona
Bo Zhao 2014 Postdoc, Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
Bin Chen 2013 Assistant Professor, New Jersey Institute of Technology
David Whelan 2013 Assistant Professor, Austin College
Anya Bilous 2012 Postdoc, Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, University of Amsterdam
Marios Chatzikos 2012  Assistant Research Professor at University of Kentucky
Nicole Gugliucci 2012 Assistant Professor, Saint Anselm College
Paul Ries 2012 Technologist II, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Abel Yang 2012 Lecturer, National University of Singapore
Gail Zasowski 2012 Assistant Professor, University of Utah

 

Many of our former graduate students get permanent positions as well. Here’s a list of the rest of our graduates since 1967 and where they are now.

 

Name> Ph.D. year Current position
Cheng-yu Kuo 2011 Assistant Professor, National Sun Yat-sen University
Jarron Leisenring 2011 JWST Support Scientist, STScI
Ryan Lynch 2011 Assistant Scientist, Green Bank Observatory
Geneviève de Messières 2011 Astronomy Education Program Manager, National Air and Space Museum
Amy Reines 2011 Associate Professor, Montana State University
Jeff Carlin 2010 Research Associate, LSST
Mei-Yin Chou 2010 EPO Project Scientist, Academia Sinica, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Ori Fox 2010 Instrument Scientist, STScI
Chan Park 2010 Instrumentation Scientist, Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
Jake Simon 2010 Senior Research Associate, University of Colorado
Dan Wik 2010 Assistant Professor, University of Utah
Ka Wah Wong 2010 Assistant Professor of Physics at SUNY-Brockport
David Nidever 2009 Assistant Research Professor, Montana State University
Srikrishna Kanneganti 2009 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (deceased, 2013)
Richard Mellon 2009 Technical Consultant, Ab Initio Software
Jodie Morgan 2009 Chief Scientist, Morgan Research Enterprises
Ricardo Muñoz 2008 Assistant Professor, Universidad de Chile
Alok Singhal 2008 Edgestream Partners, L.P.
Jennifer Bartlett 2007 Chief, Software Products Division, United States Naval Observatory
Tanim Islam 2007 Design Physicist, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Jeffrey Oishi 2007 Assistant Professor, Bates College and Research Associate, American Museum of Natural History
Gregory Sivakoff 2006 Associate Professor, University of Alberta
David Rosario 2006 Junior Scientist, Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
Allyson Sheffield 2006 Associate Professor, CUNY - LaGuardia Community College
Peter Frinchaboy 2006 Associate Professor, Texas Christian University
Scott Randall 2005 Astrophysicist, High Energy Astrophysics Division, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Jeff Crane 2004 Associate Director for Technological Affairs, Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington
John Silverman 2004 Assistant Professor, Kavli Institute for Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, University of Tokyo
Tony Sohn 2004 Associate Research Scientist, Johns Hopkins University
Jamie Ostheimer 2002 Associate Director, Data Science at BioElectron Technology Corporation
Wayne Winters 2002 Chair, Science Department, John Burroughs School
Joshua Kempner 2002 Senior Imaging Scientist, VisEn Medical
Zhenping Huang 2001 IceCube Neutrino Experiment, University of Maryland, and NASA/GSFC
Michael Siegel 2002 Senior Research Associate, Penn State University
Chih-Yueh Wang 2001 Department of Physics, Chung-Yuan Christian University, Taiwan
Chris Palma 2001 Senior Lecturer, Penn State University
Franz Bauer 2000 Associate Professor, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Ronak Shah 2000 Research Astronomer, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Raymond Ohl 2000 Optical physicist, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Eric Richards 1999 Business Development, PLUS Location Systems
Noella D’Cruz 1998 Professor, Joliet Junior College
Jimmy Irwin 1997 Associate Professor, University of Alabama
Fan Fang 1997 Research Scientist, Spitzer Science Center
Vikram Dwarkadas 1997 Research Associate Professor, University of Chicago
Jonathan Whitney 1996 Formerly: Programmer, Kesmai Corporation
Edward Murphy 1996 Professor, University of Virginia
David Frayer 1996 Scientist at the Green Bank Observatory
Gregory Hennessy 1995 Astronomer, United States Naval Observatory
William Dalton 1995 VP for Production, ArtCraft Entertainment, Inc.
Charles Nelson 1994 Associate Professor, Drake University
Richard Gelderman 1994 Professor, Western Kentucky University
Prudence Foster 1994 Researcher, University of Bristol
Michael Wise 1992 Head, Astronomy Group, Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)
Eric Lufkin 1992 Financial Advisor, Morgan Stanley
Brian McNamara 1991 Professor, University of Waterloo
John Houck 1991 Research Scientist, MIT Center for Space Research
Michael Fanelli 1991 Astrophysics Branch, NASA Ames
Jeffrey Mangum 1990 Scientist, National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Harry Lehto 1989 Professor, Turku University
David Adler 1989 Senior Operations Astronomer, AURA
Melissa McGrath 1988 Senior Scientist, SETI
Robert Emmering 1988 Senior IT Product Specialist, Pacific Gas & Electric
Deborah Crocker 1987 Adjunct Professor, University of Alabama
Raymond White 1986 Professor and Senior Associate Dean, University of Alabama
James Wadiak 1986 President, BioTraces Inc. (deceased, 2003)
Andrew Hamilton 1984 Professor and JILA Fellow, University of Colorado
Alice Monet 1984 Chief, Software Products Division, United States Naval Observatory (retired)
Patrick Seitzer 1983 Research Professor (Emeritus), University of Michigan
Susan Neff 1982 Astrophysicist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Kerry Kingham 1982 Earth Orientation Department, United States Naval Observatory
Ronald Probst 1981 Staff Scientist, CTIO
Frank Levinson 1980 Founder and Principal Technologist, Finisar Corporation
Linda Dressel 1979 RJH Scientific Inc.
Thomas Strikwerda 1977 Program Area Manager, National Security Space, Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University
Alan Marscher 1977 Professor, Boston University
James Huntley 1977 Lucent Technologies
Thomas Corbin 1977 Chief, Cataloging Division, United States Naval Observatory (retired)
Thomas Bania 1977 Professor, Boston University
Jan Hollis 1976 Assistant Chief, Space Data and Computing Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
David Gibson 1976 Formerly: GEODSS Field Site, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Harold McAlister 1975 Regents’ Professor Emeritus and Director Emeritus, Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy, Georgia State University, and Director Emeritus, Mount Wilson Observatory
Paul Hemenway 1974 Adjunct Professor, University of Denver
Ronald Zissell 1973 Observatory Director Mount Holyoke College (retired)
Charles Smith 1973 unknown
Alvin Miller 1973 CSC, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (retired)
Paul Giguere 1973 Fluid Dynamics Group, Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Labs
Frank Clark 1973 VSBC, Air Force Research Laboratory
Haywood Smith 1972 Associate Professor Emeritus, University of Florida
Fred Rosenberg 1972 Member, Technical Staff, Lincoln Labs, MIT
Dan Pascu 1972 Data Reduction and Instrumentation Division, Astrometry Department, United States Naval Observatory
Joseph Mast 1972 Professor Emeritus, Eastern Mennonite University
Dennis McCarthy 1972 United States Naval Observatory Earth Orientation Department, Retired
Mary Kay Hemenway 1971 Research Associate, Senior Lecturer, and Director, Educational Services Office, University of Texas, Austin (retired)
Catharine Garmany 1971 Senior Science Education Specialist - Astronomer, NOAO
Robert Doyle 1970 Associate Professor, Frostburg State University
Peter Shelus 1970 Senior Research Scientist, University of Texas, Austin
John Hershey 1969 Astronomy Program, CSC, Space Telescope Science Institute
Richard Berg 1969 Booz Allen Hamilton
George Lockwood 1968 Astronomer, Lowell Observatory
Paul Knappenberger 1968 President, Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum
Frank Bash 1967 Professor Emeritus, University of Texas, Austin