Summer Student Talks
Schedule of Weekly Presentations
Every week a member of the Observatories faculty or postdoctoral community presents their research to the CASSI interns.
Casey Lam
Thursday, June 26, 2025 - 01:00pm
Finding quiet black holes in the Milky Way
Although they sound like science fiction, black holes are real---they are formed from the deaths of massive stars. In fact, there are expected to be 100 million of them in our Milky Way alone! Astronomers are interested in studying these stellar-mass black holes, but how can you study something that, by definition, is not visible? I'll talk about some of the ways we can find and learn about these elusive objects.
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Ana Bonoca
Thursday, July 10, 2025 - 01:00pm
How to Catch a Dark Matter Clump (Without Ever Seeing It)
Many lines of evidence suggest that the universe is filled with an invisible dark matter, but its nature remains elusive. Is dark matter a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP)? Is it "cold" (CDM) or "warm" (WDM)? Does the dark matter particle have a significant cross-section for self-interaction (SIDM)? Is dark matter wave-like (FDM)? Laboratory experiments have yielded no direct detection of dark matter so far, however distinguishing these scenarios may be possible by measuring the structure of dark matter on scales smaller than a galaxy. I will describe how we are combining detailed kinematics of stars in the Milky Way halo with statistical modeling techniques to detect small clumps of dark matter and determine its nature.
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Luke Bouma
Wednesday, July 16, 2025 - 01:00pm
Title TBA
Abstract TBA
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Jack Piotrowski
Wednesday, July 23, 2025 - 01:30pm
Title TBA
Abstract TBA
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Mandy Chen
Thursday, July 31, 2025 - 01:00pm
Title TBA
Abstract TBA
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Nicole Sanchez
Tuesday, August 5, 2025 - 01:00pm
Galaxies, Supermassive Black Holes, & the Circumgalactic Medium
In this talk, Nicole will discuss the theory of galaxy evolution and how we use computer simulations of the universe to understand the way that galaxies grow and evolve. Objects like supermassive black holes and stars play a role in the shaping of galaxies and she will discuss the way that different components of galaxies like the stellar disk and the gas halo respond to the energetic phenomenon that impact galaxies throughout their lives.
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Jason Williams
Thursday, August 14, 2025 - 01:00pm
TBA
Abstract TBA