Planets form from disks of dust and gas surrounding young stars.  As they grow, these new planets inherit their chemical composition from the surrounding material and then sculpt it through gravitational interactions to form gaps and other asymmetric structures.  In the last decade, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has revolutionized our ability to study planet formation, allowing us to examine this process in high spatial and spectral resolution.  I will present highlights from ongoing work using ALMA and other […]

Department-wide colloquium Speaker: Jami Valentine, Founder of African American Women in Physics Title: Diversity in Physics  Abstract: Dr. Jami Valentine Miller was the first African American woman to earn a PhD in Physics & Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University and is the founder of African American Women in Physics Inc. In this talk, she will share […]

Video of the talk Department-wide colloquium Speaker: Blakesley Burkhart (Rutgers) Title: The Turbulent Life of Gas Across Cosmic Time: Unveiling the Hidden Drivers of Galaxy Growth Abstract: The past decades have witnessed a growing understanding of the cosmic baryon lifecycle: gas flows into galaxies from the diffuse intergalactic medium (IGM), fueling new generations of stars and […]

Department-wide colloquium Speaker: Stephen Taylor (Vanderbilt) Title: The Road Ahead For Nanohertz-frequency Gravitational-wave Astrophysics Abstract:  The landscape of gravitational-wave astrophysics was recently broadened to encompass the nanohertz-frequency band, where NANOGrav and other pulsar-timing arrays found the tell-tale signature of a stochastic all-sky background of gravitational waves. With this evidence came spectral information that yields insights […]

  “Opening The Era of Exoplanet Atmospheric Chemistry With JWST.” We are now one full year into the era of JWST, NASA’s flagship observatory and successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. Exoplanet characterization has historically been dominated by space-based facilities, and the new infrared capabilities of JWST are uncovering the atmospheres of exoplanets in an […]