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KICP News
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KICP News, 2012
Ted Ressell becomes the new KICP Assistant Director January 24, 2012 ![]() "Ted earned his PhD in astrophysics at Chicago and we are delighted to have him back. With his knowledge of cosmology and his management experience at the Law School, he will help the KICP reach even greater heights in research, outreach and training for students and postdocs." - Michael Turner, Director of the PFC and KICP Related Links: KICP Members: M. Ted Ressell; Michael S. Turner Daniel Holz has received a NSF CAREER award January 25, 2012 ![]() Professor Holz's research focuses on the interplay of general relativity, astrophysics, and cosmology. Recently he has been working on using gravitational waves and gravitational lensing as cosmological probes. Related Links: KICP Members: Daniel E. Holz Pizza with Professors February 22, 2012 ![]() Marilena Loverde: ATLAS Peeped March 26, 2012 ![]() "ATLAS Peeped", by Mark Trodden, Discover Magazine Related Links: KICP Members: Marilena LoVerde Brothers and Sisters4Science Discover the Universe with KICP Scientists! March 30, 2012 ![]() Read more >> Related Links: KICP Members: Elise Jennings KICP Students: Immanuel Buder; Christopher Greer SPT/SAIC exhibit April 25, 2012 ![]() As part of our ongoing partnership with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), students in an Architecture, interior architecture and designed objects (AAIDO) studio course designed and constructed a portable exhibit about the South Pole Telescope. This installation pays homage to the 100 years of exploration and discovery at the South Pole and to the most recent scientific achievements of SPT. Visual imagery provides a glimpse into life and research at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Interactive components include a backdrop of the ceremonial South Pole and Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear photo op and a multi-touch table that encourages self-guided exploration of images, videos and data. The first destination for the exhibit is the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington DC (April 27-29) where Tom Plagge, Tyler Natoli and Kyle Story will represent the SPT science team. Other planned deployments include The World Science Festival Street Fair and special events at SAIC. Related Links: KICP Members: John E. Carlstrom; Randall H. Landsberg; Tom Plagge; Kathryn K. Schaffer; Mark Subbarao KICP Students: Leul Bezane; Lindsey E. Bleem; Abigail T. Crites; Tyler Natoli; Kyle Story Scientific projects: South Pole Telescope (SPT) Congratulations to Dr. Hao Huan! April 30, 2012 ![]() Hao has received a researcher position at the Teza Technologies. Related Links: KICP Members: Scott P. Wakely KICP Students: Hao Huan Scientific projects: Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) Congratulations to Dr. Immanuel Buder! June 9, 2012 ![]() Immanuel has received a postdoctoral fellow position at Harvard College Observatory. Related Links: KICP Members: Stephan S. Meyer KICP Students: Immanuel Buder Scientific projects: Q/U Imaging ExperimenT (QUIET) Angela Olinto becomes the new Chair of the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics June 11, 2012 ![]() Thank you Angela! You can count on the support of us all! - Rocky Kolb Chair of the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics Related Links: KICP Members: Edward W. Kolb; Angela V. Olinto Elise Jennings has been awarded a Springer Thesis Prize June 18, 2012 ![]() Simulations of Dark Energy Cosmologies A major outstanding problem in physics is understanding the nature of the dark energy that is driving the accelerating expansion of the Universe. This thesis makes a significant contribution by demonstrating, for the first time, using state-of-the-art computer simulations, that the interpretation of future galaxy survey measurements is far more subtle than is widely assumed, and that a major revision to our models of these effects is urgently needed. The work contained in the thesis was used by the WiggleZ dark energy survey to measure the growth rate of cosmic structure in 2011 and had a direct impact on the design of the surveys to be conducted by the European Space Agency's Euclid mission, a 650 million euro project to measure dark energy. Springer Theses Award Springer Theses is restricted to truly outstanding original work that makes a substantial contribution to research in its field. The author of each thesis accepted into the series will receive a prize of €500. Theses will be published both in print and in Springer's prominent eBook programme, thus becoming accessible to millions of readers worldwide through SpringerLink. The prestige and visibility associated with the prize-winning publication will help to further the career of deserving students. Related Links: KICP Members: Elise Jennings Stephan S. Meyer and the WMAP team awarded the 2012 Gruber Cosmology Prize June 20, 2012 ![]() The WMAP team used observations of the so-called "echo of the Big Bang," the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, to determine the universe's vital statistics - its age, content, geometry, and origin. This feat in turn has helped transform cosmology itself into a precision science. Related Links: KICP Members: Stephan S. Meyer Scientific projects: Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Congratulations to Dr. Eva Wuyts! July 3, 2012 Congratulations to Eva Wuyts for successfully defending her PhD dissertation on "A Magnified View of High Redshift Star Formation." Related Links: KICP Members: Michael D. Gladders KICP Students: Eva Wuyts Congratulations to Dr. Christopher Kelso! July 10, 2012 ![]() "Chris' research has been focused on dark matter, and interpretations of data from a number of underground experiments designed to search for it. Particularly exciting has been his work on dark matter interpretations of the signals reported by the CoGeNT, CRESST and DAMA experiments. While we cannot say for certain yet whether these experiments are seeing dark matter particles, Chris' work has certainly helped to make these experiments and their anomalous results a "hot topic" among particle physicists and cosmologists." - Dan Hooper, PhD advisor Christopher has received a postdoctoral scholar position at the University of Utah. Related Links: KICP Members: Daniel Hooper KICP Students: Christopher M. Kelso Congratulations to Dr. Samuel Leitner! July 20, 2012 ![]() "In his thesis paper Sam has derived star formation histories of galaxies, which are still forming stars now, using a variety of observations on how star formation rate depends on stellar mass of galaxies as a function of cosmic epoch. Remarkably, the results show that galaxies such as our Milky Way have formed more than 80% of their stars over the last ten billion years of the evolution, and less than 20% during the first three billion years. This result is at variance with most simulations of galaxy formation and may help to explain why simulations generally fail to produce late-type disk galaxies with small bulges. In his paper, Sam has also uncovered a curious discrepancy between the star formation histories of dwarf galaxies derived using the method he used and those deduced from the color-magnitude diagram of stars for nearby dwarfs." - Andrey Kravtsov, PhD advisor Samuel has received a Prize Postdoctoral fellow position in the Center for Theory and Computation at the University of Maryland. Related Links: KICP Members: Andrey V. Kravtsov KICP Students: Samuel N. Leitner Congratulations to Dr. Melanie Simet! August 3, 2012 ![]() "Melanie has studied weak gravitational lensing caused by galaxy clusters. She led the effort to measure this lensing signal in Stripe 82 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, with results that will help calibrate cluster masses and begin the community on the road to measuring tomography. For her thesis, Melanie studied the important effect that it is difficult to locate the true center of a galaxy cluster. This "mis-ceterning" problem leads to incorrect mass determinations. By using a combination of simulations and data from SDSS, Melanie quantified both the effect and various algorithms proposed to address it." - Scott Dodelson, PhD advisor Melanie has received a postdoctoral position at the Carnegie Mellon University. Related Links: KICP Members: Scott Dodelson KICP Students: Melanie Simet Scientific projects: Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Christopher Williams has been awarded a 2012 CCAPP Price Prize August 6, 2012 ![]() Dr. Pliny A. and Margaret H. Price Prize in Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics Related Links: KICP Students: Christopher Williams Scientific projects: Microwave Detection of Air Showers (MIDAS) The Directors of the six Kavli Institutes in astrophysics met to discuss new ways to cooperate September 6, 2012 ![]() back row: Xiao-wei Liu (KIAA in Beijing), Hitoshi Murayama (KIPMU in Japan), George Efstathiou (KICC in Cambridge) front row: Michael Turner (KICP), Jackie Hewitt (MKI at MIT) and Roger Blandford (KIPAC at Stanford). Related Links: KICP Members: Michael S. Turner The MIDAS telescope installed at the Pierre Auger Observatory October 15, 2012 ![]() Related Links: KICP Members: Pedro Facal; Paolo Privitera KICP Students: Christopher Williams Scientific projects: Microwave Detection of Air Showers (MIDAS) Congratulations to Dr. Christopher Greer! October 31, 2012 ![]() "Chris Greer made critical contributions to the building and deploying of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Array (SZA), an interferometric array of 3.5 meter mm-wave telescopes located at the CARMA site in California. He used the SZA to image the SZ effect for a sample of galaxy clusters selected by their richness in the SDSS maxBCG cluster catalog. His thesis provides the first joint calibration of the SZ and optical mass-observable relation. This work is important for using cluster surveys for constraining cosmology, in particular the nature of dark energy, and it provides the ground work for the upcoming joint analysis of the large South Pole Telescope and Dark Energy Survey data sets." - John Carlstrom, PhD advisor Christopher has received a postdoctoral researcher position at Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona. Related Links: KICP Members: John E. Carlstrom KICP Students: Christopher Greer Kavli Foundation President Robert Conn visits the KICP November 15, 2012 ![]() KICP Associate Fellow Ryan Keisler to receive APS DAP Early Recognition Award December 18, 2012 ![]() Related Links: KICP Members: Ryan Keisler Scientific projects: South Pole Telescope (SPT) A new detector is seeking the nature of dark matter December 19, 2012 ![]() Related Links: KICP Members: Alvaro Chavarria; Paolo Privitera KICP Students: Jing Zhou Scientific projects: Dark Matter in CCDs (DAMIC) |