John Blondin - NC State University
Dr. Blondin is carrying out research in the field of Circumstellar Gas-Dynamics. The numerical hydrodynamics code VH-1 is used on local supercomputers, to study a vast array of objects observed by astronomers both from ground-based observatories and from orbiting satellites. The two primary subjects under investigation are interacting binary stars - including normal stars like the Algol binary, and compact object systems like the high mass X-ray binary SMC X-1 - and supernova remnants - from very young, like SNR 1987a, to older remnants like the Cygnus Loop. Other astrophysical processes of current interest include radiatively driven winds from hot stars, the interaction of stellar winds with the interstellar medium, the stability of radiative shockwaves, the propagation of jets from young stellar objects, and the formation of globular clusters.
Jill Carson - Agnes Scott College
Jill is a graphic designer and the creator of this web site. She know just enough about astronomy to have no idea what's going on. She is from Winston-Salem, NC, and graduated from Agnes Scott College in 2004 with a double major in English and studio art, and she is attending The Creative Circus in graphic design this fall.
Lauren Davis - University of Florida
Lauren's undergraduate work included cataloguing the morphologies of ultracompact HII regions in the massive star forming regions W49A and SgrB2 using 7mm, 1.3cm, and 3.6 cm data from the VLA.. She recently completed her master's degree at the University of Florida, working with Dr. Stephen Gottesman on an analysis of galaxy NGC 157 and its peculiar rotation curve. She is now pursuing her PhD in astronomy.
Jewels DeBlasio - Agnes Scott College
Jewels DeBlasio graduated from Agnes Scott College in 2005 with a double major in astrophysics and psychology. During her undergraduate career she worked with Dr. Chris DePree on his research involving the massive star-forming regions W49A and SrgB2. Among her primary projects were classifying and imaging each region by morphology, analyzing data for support of a high-mass distribution function, and the detection of sources with broad recombination line emissions. All research was aimed at a broader understanding of the evolution of ultracompact HII regions. Jewels is currently applying for graduate work in aerospace human factors.
Chris DePree - Agnes Scott College
Chris DePree, project PI, is an Associate Professor of Physics & Astronomy at Agnes Scott College. He was born in Hong Kong, received his BS in Physics from Duke University in 1988, and his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1996. His research focuses on unsolved problems in massive star formation, in particular radio frequency studies of the hot gas that surrounds massive stars. De Pree is the author of many research articles on the topic of massive star formation, and is co-author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Astronomy, Recent Issues and Advances in Astronomy, and co-editor of the Van Nostrand Concise Encyclopedia of Science.
Katy Means - Smith College
Katy studies Astronomy and Physics at Smith College in Northampton, MA. She will receive her B.A. in Astronomy with a minor in Physics in spring 2006, though her post-Smith plans are still uncharted. Katy began research with this project this summer. She is working in collaboration with Chris De Pree and John Blondin, using the hydrodynamics code VH1 to create 1D and 2D simulations of UCHII regions. Her simulations hope to further support the pressure confinement model for the growth of UCHII regions.
Allison Mercer - University of Iowa
Allison aided in the project's reduction of high-resolution Very Large Array (VLA) H52 line data from the massive star-forming regions W51 and W49A, the mapping and cataloguing physical characteristics of nearly 100 specific ultracompact HII (UCHII) regions from 7 mm, 2 cm, 1.3cm and 3.6 cm data from W49A and SrgB2, and the development and implementation of a simulation of the evolution of UCHII Regions using VH-1. She is currently pursuing a PhD in physics at the University of Iowa.
David Wilner - Harvard
David Wilner is an astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, part of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and is also a Lecturer in the Astronomy Department of Harvard University. His main research interests are (1) the formation of stars and planets and (2) the development of aperture synthesis techniques. He is working on a science program associated with the Submillimeter Array, now under construction near the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii.