RADIAL Program

2024 RADIAL Cohort

Johann Baynes (University of the West Indies) is working under the guidance of Dr. Yjan Gordon on a summer research project focused on utilizing radio observations to gain insights into various transient phenomena, such as flares from active galactic nuclei and supernovae. Recognizing the difficulty astronomers face in accessing historical radio data, Johann is designing and developing a software tool to retrieve archival radio catalog and image data from the world’s largest radio observatories for any given area of the sky and time. Using this tool, Johann will cross-correlate radio observations with historical high-energy neutrino events detected by IceCube, aiming to better understand the populations of objects capable of producing astrophysical neutrinos. Johann’s final presentation can be found here. 

Isaiah Persad (University of the West Indies) is working on a summer research project under the guidance of Dr. Eric Hooper. The research is focused on Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), which are visible manifestations of supermassive black holes actively accreting material. These AGN can emit radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, and those that produce detectable radio emission can create spectacular near light-speed jets, resulting in large lobes of glowing radio light. Isaiah is utilizing the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS) to study a sub-population of radio AGN. His research involves characterizing the environments of these AGN, determining if they are isolated, in sparse groups, or in richer galaxy clusters. This project requires exploring and manipulating large catalogs and image data sets. The primary scientific goal is to understand how the bending of radio AGN jets can measure the material between galaxies, addressing the longstanding cosmological “missing baryon problem.” Isaiah’s final presentation can be found here.

Eliza Canales (New Mexico Tech Institute of Mining & Technology) is working on a summer research project under the guidance of Dr. Trey Wenger. The work is focused on analyzing HII regions, which are zones of ionized gas surrounding recently-formed massive stars. The dynamics of this ionized gas constrain models of high-mass star formation, the evolution of HII regions, and the impact of these nebulae on their surrounding interstellar matter. Recent high-angular resolution infrared observations reveal a complex kinematic environment near some HII regions, and radio recombination line (RRL) observations suggest that many nebulae have turbulent ionized gas velocity fields. Eliza’s project involves using Australia Telescope Compact Array RRL observations of several southern sky HII regions, matched with high-resolution infrared observations. The goal is to map the kinematics of the ionized gas in these nebulae, relate these kinematics to the infrared observations, and develop a model of gas dynamics in Galactic HII regions. Eliza’s final presentation can be found here.

Neval Rattan (University of the West Indies) is working on a summer research project under the guidance of Professor Juliette Becker. The work is focused on analyzing transit timing variations (TTVs) of exoplanets discovered using the transit method. TTVs are deviations from expected transit times caused by gravitational interactions between planets in a system, allowing for the measurement of planetary masses—a property not retrievable using transit data alone. Neval’s project involves analyzing transit data from the Kepler and TESS missions, applying models to estimate planetary masses and orbital configurations, and performing numerical simulations to refine these estimates. This project merges mathematical techniques with computational tools to solve complex astronomical puzzles.

Martina Salichs Maidana  (University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez) is working on a summer research project under the guidance of Dr. Zoe Todd. The project centers on investigating the influence of exogenous delivery, such as comet and asteroid impacts, interplanetary dust particles, and meteorites, on the chemical content available on planets for potential prebiotic chemistry. Martina’s final presentation can be found here.

2024 RADIAL Near-to-Peer Mentors

Brianna Sampson (University of the West Indies) is 2023 RADIAL alum. During her summer at UW-Madison, she worked on an observational radio astronomy project under the guidance of Dr. Yjan Gordon. Brianna identified more than 1,000 potential Giant Radio Galaxies. Giant Radio Galaxies (GRGs) are rare varieties of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) with jets spanning more than 0.7 Mpc. Link to her AAS poster here. Brianna is a coauthor on a research note entitled The Discovery of 63 Giant Radio Galaxies in the FIRST Survey. 

Kaylan Marie Achong  (University of the West Indies) is a 2022 RADIAL alum. During her virtual summer internship at UW-Madison, she worked on an observational radio astronomy project under the guidance of Drs. Eric Hooper, Yjan Gordon, and Melissa Morris. Kaylan is a coauthor on a peer-reviewed publication entitled A Quick Look at the 3 GHz Radio Sky. II. Hunting for DRAGNs in the VLA Sky Survey. She will begin graduate school in the Department of Astronomy at UW-Madison in the fall 2025.

RADIAL Site Team

Melinda Soares-Furtado, Site Director

Eric Hooper, Student Liason

Ralf Kotulla, REU Director

Heather Sauer, Graduate Program Manager