Celebrating Our Undergraduate Prize Winners
The Deparartment of Astronomy is pleased to announce the following awards presented at Final Exercises on May 20, 2017:
Near-Field Cosmology at Virginia
Star Formation At Virginia
Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) at Virginia
Instrumentation Laboratory at Virginia
Theoretical and Computational Astrophysics at Virginia
Astrochemistry at Virginia
World Class Facilities at Virginia
Planetary Science at Virginia
Astronomers Make Detailed Map of Lava Lake on Jupiter's Moon Io
Scientists, including UVA astronomer Mike Skrutskie, have used the UVA built LMIRCAM on the Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona to make a detailed map of the Loki Patera lava lake on Jupiter's moon Io. They have found evidence for two waves of overturning lava propogating around the lake.
UVa Astronomers Track Distant Star Cluster with Adaptive Optics
Research Associate Tobias Fritz, along with graduate students Sean Linden and Paul Zivick in Nitya Kallivayalil’s Near-field Cosmology group, combined images from Gemini South’s wide-field adaptive optics system with data from the Hubble Space Telescope to determine the proper motion of a distant cluster of stars. The observations, the first to use ground-based adaptive optics to precisely measure the motion of a cluster at such a large distance, allowed astronomers to set a lower limit for the mass of our Milky Way while providing clues about the cluster’s origin.
Kelsey Johnson Named Director of Echols Scholars Program
Associate Professor Kelsey Johnson will be the next director of the Echols Scholars Program. She is an award-winning teacher and advocate for public astronomy education, whose research on galaxy evolution has earned a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and other prominent honors.
Learn more in the annoucement from the Arts and Sciences Office of the Dean
Universe of Mysteries
Professor Kelsey Johnson teaches her students to ask deep, meaningful, and provocative questions in her ASTR 1270 Unsolved Mysteries in the Universe course. See more about this amazing course from an inspirational teacher in this video at UVA Today.
UVA Astronomy-Physics Student Named Goldwater Scholar
University of Virginia astronomy-physics major Bridget Andersen has been awared a 2017 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. Arvind Gupta, another astronomy-physics major, was one of two UVA students to receive honorable mentions. Congratulations to both Bridget and Arvind.
Written in the Stars
Associate Professor Kelsey Johnson hosted authors Dava Sobel (The Glass Universe, Galileo’s Daughter, Longitude, The Planets) and Margot Lee Shetterly (Hidden Figures) for a sold out show at the Paramount Theater on March 25th as part of the Virginia Festival of the Book. Their lively discussion on issues related to women and minorities in the history science and space exploration received a standing ovation.
Sky Surveyors
With the APOGEE team celebrating first light at APOGEE-South, UVA Today looks back on the critical role that Mike Skrutskie and the Virginia Astronomy Instrumentation Lab has played in making the Astronomy Department at the University of Virginia a world leader in instrument design, construction, and research.
Mergers and Acquisitions
A Wall Street Journal article features the work of a team of NRAO and UVA astronomers led by Sabrina Stierwalt. The team has found seven isolated groups of dwarf galaxies that shed light on how large galaxies grow from the merger and accretion of smaller dwarf galaxies.
UVA APOGEE-South Team Installs Spectrograph
A team of astronomers and instrument scientists are installing the APOGEE-South spectrograph at the Irénée du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. APOGEE-South will measure the chemical compositions and motions of hundreds of thousands of stars in the southern sky as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to help astronomers answer questions about the formation of our Milky Way Galaxy.
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News & Announcements
Mark Whittle awarded a Jefferson Scholars Foundation 2020 Award for Excellence in Teaching
October 15, 2020
Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, in 2012 the Jefferson Scholars Foundation began recognizing University faculty who have demonstrated both excellence in teaching and exceeding care... Read»
Astronomer Ilse Cleeves Recognized Among Women Leaders in ‘STEM2D’
June 19, 2020
Astronomy's Ilse Cleeves has won the prestigious Johnson & Johnson Women in STEM2D (WiSTEM2D) Scholars Award. The Johnson & Johnson program seeks to “fuel development of future female... Read»
2020 Department of Astronomy Awards
May 29, 2020
During the virtual Astronomy Department Diploma ceremony on 17 May, the winners of the Lawrence W. Fredrick award of the Astronomy department and the winners of three undergraduate Astronomy... Read»
