Lou Nigra

Graduate Student

Contact Information

Lou Nigra
University of Wisconsin
Department of Astronomy
475 North Charter Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53706

Office: 4321 Sterling Hall
Email: nigra [at] astro wisc edu

About me

I am a graduate student in Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I work with Snezana Stanimirovic and Jay Gallagher. My research interests include the Magellanic Stream and the morphology and evolution of HII regions. On the instrumentation side, I am also interested in Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) mitigation in radio telescopes through active hardware approaches.

In pursuit of a new career in Astronomy, I left an electrical engineering career in 2003, obtained a M.S. in Physics at the University of Illinois at Chicago and joined the UW Astronomy Ph.D. program in 2005.

In 2009, I worked at the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center near Arecibo, Puerto Rico under a one-year pre-doctoral position performing research in two of my areas of interest: The nature of the interface between the Magellanic Stream and the Galactic Halo,and RFI mitigation.

My CV

Refereed Publications

“The 200° Long Magellanic Stream System”, Nidever, David L., Majewski, Steven R., Butler Burton, W., and Nigra, Lou, The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 723, Issue 2, pp. 1618-1631 (2010). 2010ApJ...723.1618N

“The Small-Scale Structure of the Magellanic Stream as a Foundation for Galaxy Evolution”, Stanimirovic, S., Gallagher, J. S., III, and Nigra, L. 2010, Serbian Astronomical Journal, vol. 180, pp. 1-10 2010SerAJ.180....1S

“NGC 602 Environment, Kinematics and Origins”, Nigra, L.; Gallagher, J. S., III; Smith, L. J.; Stanimirović, S.; Nota, A.; Sabbi, E., The Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Volume 120, Issue 871, pp. 972-982.  2008PASP..120..972N 

Conference Proceedings

“The Magellanic Stream to Halo Interface: Processes that Shape our Nearest Gaseous Halo Stream”, Nigra, L., Stanimirovic, S., Gallagher, J. S., III, Lockman, F. J., Nidever, D. L., and Majewski, S. R. 2010, Galaxy Wars: Stellar Populations and Star Formation in Interacting Galaxies, ASP Conference Series Vol. 423, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2010., p.38 2010ASPC..423...38N

“A turn-key Concept for active cancellation of Global Position System L3 Signal”, Nigra, L., Lewis, M., Edgar, C., Perillat, P., Quintero, L., Stanimirovic, S., and Gallagher, J. S. 2010, Proceedings of the RFI Mitigation Workshop. 29-31 March 2010. Groningen, the Netherlands. 2010rfim.workE..25N

“MEMs-based speckle spectrometer”, Sheinis, A. I.; Nigra, L. ; Kuhlen, M. Q., Advances in Adaptive Optics II, Proceedings of the SPIE, Vol 6272. pp. 62724U, 2006. 2006SPIE.6272E.153S

Teaching

In the spring of 2008, I was a Teaching Assistant for Astronomy 103 working with Dr. Trevor Irwin.

In the fall of 2007, I was a Teaching Assistant for Physics 104 working with Professor Clint Sprott. Here is a link to my section webpage: Physics 104 Fall 2007

In the fall of 2005, I was a Teaching Assistant for Astronomy 103 working with Professor Amy Barger.