Department of Astronomy

The UW-Madison Astronomy Department's web pages herein describe our members, graduate program, research facilities, projects, and groups, our scholarly research, and research talks. Our undergraduate and graduate teaching, committees, and public outreach are also found here. Associated home pages can be found for our Space Astronomy Laboratory and our Astronomy Department Shops. Summaries of our activities for the past few years are contained in our Annual Reports.

Visitors: Do you have a sabbatical or leave of absence in the near future? We highly value long-term visitors to our department. Selected visitors are eligible for reimbursement of certain expenses, office space, assistance in finding housing, and use of campus facilities. Contact the Department Chair for more information.

News:

UW Grad Student Wins Fulbright

Graduate student Ryan Keenan was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to spend next year at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile. Ryan will collaborate with Dr. Roberto De Propris on studies of galaxy evolution through major mergers and work with CTIO's outreach division on Spanish language outreach and education projects.

Nature Result: UW team finds that stellar collisions help explain the mystery of "Blue Straggler" stars

In their recent Nature report, UW grad student Aaron Geller and Prof. Robert Mathieu show that stellar collisions in star clusters are greatly enhanced and can explain the properties of a mysterious group of stars called Blue Stragglers. "People have been trying to find distinguishing properties of these stars for 50 years," notes Mathieu. "What blue stragglers are showing us is that life in a star cluster is rarely a lonely existence." The full press release can be found here.

Science proposals submitted for new spectrograph on the South African Large Telescope

In February department members submitted proposals to use the Robert Stobie Spectrograph (RSS) on the 11-meter Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) . RSS is a versatile high-throughput imaging spectrograph with both visible and near-infrared capabilities that was designed and built at UW-Madison by professors Ken Nordsieck and Andy Sheinis. The visible arm is being commissioned in spring of 2010 and the NIR arm will be added in 2012.

UW Professor receives prestigious national award

Snezana Stanimirovic, assistant professor of Astronomy was granted a Cottrell Scholar Award by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement. The award is given to young professors who show exceptional potential and dedication to both teaching and research.
Cottrell Scholar Awardee Profile
UW Press Release

UW Celebrates the International Year of Astronomy

Graduate student Laura Trouille was awarded a NASA International Year of Astronomy Ambassador grant to create a mobile astronomical picture exhibit for Wisconsin audiences. The exhibit, "From Earth to the Universe," features images of galaxies, planets and other astronomical objects being researched by Wisconsin astronomers.

Department of Astronomy

University of Wisconsin-Madison

3321 Sterling Hall

475 N. Charter Street

Madison WI 53706-1582

Phone: 608-262-3071

Phone: 608-262-2965

Fax: 608-263-6386