Scholars Blog
UNC Asheville physics major Darren Stroupe recently shared his reflections on his summer research experience at the Cosmic Dawn Center through a blog post on UNCA Astronomy & Astrophysics Department webpage. Check it out and learn more about life as a DAWN-IRES Scholar!
Darren is back at UNC Asheville now, but we look forward to seeing him again at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu, Hawaii in January 2020.
Can you tell me a little about yourself?
My name is Isabella Cox and I am going into my senior year as a physics major and astronomy minor at RIT. I am also from Rochester, NY, where I go to college. I have a service dog who I named Hubble after the Hubble Space Telescope, but, don’t worry, I won’t be renaming him James Webb once that launches. I like to read biographies of twentieth century astronomers; some of my favorites include Edwin Hubble (obviously) and Makio Akiyama.
How did you get interested in astronomy?
When I was 5 years old, I would watch Nova on PBS with my parents where I saw an episode about astrophysics. I told my parents then that I would be an astrophysicist some day. I performed astronomy research at RIT throughout both middle school and high school, so it has been almost a decade since my first research experience. I shadowed an astronomer at RIT when I was 12 years old and she had prepared a bunch of computer games to keep me occupied, but I showed up with a bunch of highlighted questions about a research paper she had written and we ended up discussing that for my entire visit. She invited me back later to work with her. My parents have always been very supportive, exposing my sister and I to the academic life starting at a very young age.
What motivated you to apply to an international REU?
I was really interested in getting experience at a different university, because so far I have only had a chance to perform research locally at RIT.
Can you tell me about your summer research project?
I’m working with Drs. Kristian Finlator, Nina Bonaventura, and Kate Whitaker using different hydrodynamic cosmological simulations to help inform our understanding of how galaxies form and evolve, especially at high redshifts before the actual observations come from the James Webb Space Telescope. We are looking at how galaxies grow in three different simulations to test if star formation is occurring in equilibrium and to understand the flow of baryonic matter cycling in and out of galaxies.
What skills and knowledge would you like to acquire this summer?
I would like to improve my ability to program more efficiently with big catalogs, instead of relying on running things overnight; it would be good to learn how to optimize my programs.
If you could have any superpower what would it be?
I would say the power to pause time. I feel like I always need more time in the day to work on my projects. When I’m debugging I wish that I could pause time because I get fixated on a tiny error and then I lose the rest of my day.
Can you tell me a little about yourself?
A philosophical question. My name is David Vizgan and I’m from Brooklyn NY. I go to Wesleyan University and I’m a rising Junior, double majoring in Physics and Astronomy. I love heavy metal music and I’m a die-hard NY sports fan. I’ve been playing music for a while, the piano and guitar, and I’m an amateur chess player. Oh, and I’m also a quadruplet, one of four boys.
How did you get interested in astronomy?
When I was really young I had these night lights in our living room that were glow in the dark stars that we put up all over. Whenever I slept on the couch I’d see the cut out stars. When I was 5 or 6 years old, my mom bought me an astronomy book that I was completely obsessed with. I still have it today. As I went through school, I preferred the arts and I applied to college thinking I’d do journalism for a career. In my first year of college I was looking to take the easier astronomy class, but my mom pushed me to take the harder one. I had an amazing professor that semester, Dr. Meredith Hughes, who got me hooked and later took me on to do research with her.
What is your favorite part about Copenhagen? About DAWN?
I always thought that NYC was a clean, functional city but coming here and actually seeing what a clean, beautiful, functional city looks like was pretty alarming. I don’t think there is an analog for Copenhagen, it is just perfect for me. Aesthetically beautiful, friendly atmosphere, nice people and I love the emphasis on public health here, with lots of parks and exercising. It is a pretty cliche answer, but the people at DAWN are great — some of the brightest, most hard-working, invested people I’ve ever met. It is inspirational to come here to meet people working their tails off to unlock the secrets of the universe. I’m grateful to be among a talented cohort of students, which is motivating and it helps bring out the best in me.
What motivated you to apply to an international REU?
I got an email from my department encouraging students interested in astronomy to apply to this REU early in the fall semester. So it was in the back of my mind for quite a while. It is really hard to coordinate study abroad as a physics and astronomy student, so I thought this might be my only shot in my undergraduate career to do something like this. I was very invested in the application process, as I really wanted this! I thought of it like a semi-study abroad situation, which interested me, but perhaps more fulfilling from the career standpoint.
Can you tell me about your summer research project?
I’m working with Dr. Thomas Greve to investigate whether the C+ emission line at high redshifts can be used as a tracer of gas mass at early epochs. We are using simulated galaxies from SIGAME data set to derive our results.
What skills and knowledge would you like to acquire this summer?
I want to be a better coder and I want to develop more scientific independence. Having already done research, I feel like I’ve had my hand held a lot, so I’d like to grow more self-sufficient so that when I return to Wesleyan I can continue with my research project successfully.
If you could have any superpower what would it be?
Either shape-shifting or the power to light things on fire with my brain. I wouldn’t hurt anyone, of course, but I think that would be a really cool super power. But I suppose shape-shifting is more practical because I could get away with a lot more mischief. It would also help me achieve my life long dream of becoming an NBA player, by growing to 8 feet tall with super long arms. I might finally have a shot!
