Student Research Group
Fall 2022: I'm recruiting new members to join the research group. See this presentation about our research. Update: Siri Chen ('24), Gloria Hao ('25), and Athena Basu ('25) are the new research group for summer 2023. Victoria Wang ('22), Lamiaa Dakir (Bryn Mawr '20), and Chloe Mayhue ('23) coauthored a paper in 2020 on changes in the X-ray line-profile diagnostics of zeta Pup in observations that span 18 years: MNRAS, 499, 6044, 2020. In 2022, Victoria completed her senior honors thesis that includes analysis of both Chandra and XMM observations of zeta Pup. Here's Victoria presenting her preliminary results at the Swarthmore Sigma Xi student research poster session in fall 2021: 
In summer 2021, Victoria worked closely with Gwendolyn Rak ('22) on Gwendolyn's project, applying the broadband X-ray modeling techniques, first published by Winter Parts and Graham Doskoch, to the large zeta Pup Chandra dataset. We have a manuscript in preparation. This fall, Victoria is starting the PhD program at U. Delaware and Gwendolyn is starting the science journalism masters program at NYU. Meanwhile, Sky Overdorff ('21) published their modeling and analysis of location-sensitive line flux ratio diagnostics in the Chandra spectrum of zeta Pup (and changes in these diagnostics over 18 years): MNRAS, 513, 1609, 2022. Sky has been working since graduation for a small company that organizes and provides software support for medical and scientific meetings. 2019 update: Winter Parts ('20) is continuing their X-ray spectroscopy work in spring 2019 and into the summer, and Victoria Wang ('22) and Lamiaa Dakir (Bryn Mawr '20) have joined the research group and are also working on projects related to understanding the X-ray emission of massive stars. Update: Winter gave a contributed talk at the Celebrating 20 Years of Chandra symposium in Boston on December 2019: talk slides [pdf]. 2020 Update: Winter and Graham have graduated and have gone off to PhD programs (Penn State and West Virginia, respectively). And their paper has now been published: MNRAS, 503, 715, 2021. In summer 2018, Winter Parts and Graham Doskoch began working on X-ray spectral modeling of O star winds and Erin Snoddy observed more than fifty exoplanet candidates for the KELT collaboration and presented her results at the KNAC Student Research Symposium at Middlebury College in September 2018. Graham gave a talk at the symposium as well. Zack Li and David Lazere graduated in 2016, going on to grad school at Princeton and to work for an anti-hunger non-profit, respectively. Jackie Pezzato ('17) and Sarah Rubinstein ('19) are continuing to work on projects involving X-ray spectroscopy of massive stars, and they are joined by new group members Nathaniel Peters ('18) and Li Tian ('18) for the 2016-17 academic year. In the summer of 2014, Jackie Pezzato ('17) and Randy Doyle ('16) worked with me on projects involving the interpretation of X-ray spectra of massive stars. I presented some of their preliminary results at a meeting in 2014. Summer Research 2013Zack Li and Kelley Langhans, both rising sophomores, are working on different aspects of the problems of measuring and modeling the plasma temperature distribution in the shock-heated winds of massive stars. 
Summer Research 2012Astrophysics major Jake Neely ('13) has been working on a project to analyze the X-ray line emission in the O stars ζ Ori and ζ Pup, as measured with the Reflection Grating Spectrometer on the XMM X-ray Telescope. Jake is using these data to derive elemental abundances in these massive stars winds, and address questions related to rotational mixing and chemical evolution in O stars. Summer Research 2011Sierra Eckert ('14) and Jackson Goodman ('13) have started working on projects involving X-ray emission line profiles in massive stars. Neither of them were on campus this summer, but they're continuing their projects in the fall. Summer Research 2010Tzitlaly Barajas (Cal. State Los Angeles, '12) worked with the Peter van de Kamp Observatory here on campus to study Bp and other magnetic massive stars. While James MacArthur ('11) worked on a new project: using the curve of growth technique to measure the column density and ionization balance in X-ray photoionized neon plasma we're studying at the Z-Machine facility at Sandia National Lab. To get a sense of other student projects that my student-based research group will be working on in the future, you can check out this brief presentation about potential projects I gave in February 2009. The project on the laboratory astrophysics experiments and modeling is described in the poster by my old student, Michael Rosenberg, who did some preliminary work on the project two summers ago. Summer Research 2009James MacArthur ('11), a physics major, worked with some new Chandra observations this summer, with his project continuing into the semester. He presented his preliminary research results at the American Astronomical Society meeting in January (see below). We're working - along with Marc Gagné at West Chester and Leisa Townsley at Penn State - on trying to understand the strong X-ray emission from a pair of binary stars in M17. Jan. 2010: James MacArthur has presented his preliminary research results at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, DC, with a poster entitled, "The Source of Anomalously Hard X-rays in M17's Central O4-O4 Binary". 
Aug. 2011: James helped out on another project, using his expertise with spectroscopy in crowded Chandra fields. He's a coauthor on our group's study of HD 93129A, one of the most massive stars in the Galaxy.
PreviouslyVernon Chaplin ('07) has published a paper: "Spectroscopic Measurements of Temperature and Plasma Impurity Concentration During Magnetic Reconnection at the Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment," in Physics of Plasmas that was based on his senior thesis at Swarthmore. Congratulations, Vernon! 
Erin Martell and Emma Wollman presented a poster about their stellar wind research at the Atomic Processes in Plasmas meeting in Monterey, California in March 2009. They won the prize for the best student poster at the meeting. 
July 2010: Emma's work on the X-ray line profiles of the massive star, zeta Puppis, has been published. Aug. 2010: Erin's work on the broad-band X-ray spectral trends among massive stars has been published.
2009: Emma Wollman ('09) studied Greek, and modeled the resolved X-ray line profiles in the Chandra spectra of several massive stars. Erin Martell ('09) studied Latin, and analyzed the morphological trends in the Chandra spectra of over a dozen massive stars. Emma gave a presentation at the 19th Annual Keck Northeast Astronomy Consortium Student Research Symposium, at Wesleyan University in November 2008, titled, "Spectral Modeling of X-rays from Hot Star Winds." You can look at her talk and read her paper. Upon graduation, both Erin and Emma received High Honors in their external honors examinations. Erin won the Department's Berman Prize. Emma won the Department's Elmore Prize as well as the College's Lang Award. Erin is now attending the University of Chicago's astronomy and astrophysics program (update: Erin has won a Clare Boothe Luce Fellowship), while Emma is in Caltech's physics program (working with Keith Schwab's research group).
2008:Mike Rosenberg ('08) was a physics major, and entered the Physics PhD program at MIT, continuing his study of plasma physics, after graduating. His research project involved modeling the x-ray photoionization of plasma at the Z-Machine, with applications to astrophysics. This was the basis of Mike's senior honors thesis. In September 2007, Mike presented some preliminary results of his thesis research at the Swarthmore student research poster session, sponsored by Sigma Xi [ppt, png, pdf]. Older graduates include Vernon Chaplin ('07), Mike Kuhn ('07), Steve St. Vincent ('07), Victoria Swisher ('06), Micah Walter-Range ('06), Kevin Grizzard (St. John's College '06), Casey Reed ('05), Nate Shupe ('05), Marty Mudd (Williams '04), Mark Janoff ('04), Rachel Sapiro ('04), Eric Levy ('04), Kate Penrose ('04), Dave Conners ('03), Elliot Reed ('03), Carie Cardamone (Wellesley '02), Stephanie Tonnesen ('03), Roban Kramer ('03), and Allison Adelman (Bryn Mawr '03). After leaving Swarthmore, these people have done things like worked in Vietnam, worked on science policy at the National Academy of Sciences, gone to law school, to graduate school in international relations, linguistics, physics, and astrophysics, and become a science librarian at a small liberal arts college.Students who wrote honors theses under David's direction include:
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Resources for Research
Astrobetter – lots of useful information about the nitty-gritty of astronomical research and many aspects of being an astronomy student and astronomer Astrobites – very short summaries of interesting research papers, written for undergraduates by graduate students; an excellent way to browse the literature or find articles on a given topic The American Astronomical Society is our professional organization and its AAS Nova – has image-based research highlights from AAS journals Practical, for Group Members
papers: ADS
Chandra X-ray Center
Tutorial on thermal radiation processes, by J. Kaastra. A good (but somewhat technical) place to start answering the question Why do these X-ray spectra look the way they do? Student Travel and Research Funding
Sigma Xi meeting travel funding
Professional Organizations
Pathways to Science
Grad School InformationThe physics Grad School Shopper |
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| David Cohen: cohen -at- astro -dot- swarthmore -dot- edu
Last modified: May 7, 2023 |