This page has the bios of the grad students that have transfered out of Penn State, either due to their research advisor leaving the University, or for any other reason. And you know what they say: once a member of our grad family, always a member of our grad family (ok, no one else says that, but we do!).
[ Suvrath Mahadevan | Julian Van Eyken | John Wise | Justin Crepp | Pencheng Guo | Matthew Turk | Laura Lopez | Seth Timpano | Tamara Bogdanović | Karen Lewis | Michele Stark | John Debes ]
Suvrath MahadevanEmail: suvrath @ astro.ufl.eduURL: N/AMoved to: University of FloridaLeft on: Fall 2004 (Advisor moved) |
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Research Interests:
extrasolar planets, precision radial velocity measurements, planetary dynamics and instrumentation
Research Advisor:
Other Interests:
N/A
Birthday:
November 19
Favorite Color:
N/A
Alma Mater:
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
Reasons for Choosing Penn State:
HET, interesting projects floating around and dynamic faculty. Seemed to be a great place to do astronomy
Julian Van EykenEmail: vaneyken @ astro.ufl.eduURL: N/AMoved to: University of FloridaLeft on: Fall 2004 (Advisor moved) |
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Research Interests:
Extrasolar planets, instrumentation, GR (kind of - as long as it's from a safe distance)
Research Advisor:
Other Interests:
Music composition, choral singing, karate, fencing, sleeping, eating. Not necessarily in that order.
Birthday:
February 4
Favorite Color:
Macaroni cheese crayon colour. And it's COLOUR.
Alma Mater:
Cambridge University, England
Reasons for Choosing Penn State:
Friendly department, lots of research opportunities, broad range of astronomy dealt with in department, young and rapidly growing department. Opportunity to see a new country. Tired of seeing nothing but rain and fog every freaking day.
John WiseEmail: jwise @ slac.stanford.eduURL: http://www.slac.stanford.edu/~jwise/home.htmlMoved to: Stanford UniversityLeft on: Fall 2004 (Advisor moved) |
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Research Interests:
High-z structure formation and the Dark Ages
Research Advisor:
Other Interests:
My Girlfriend, Trance Music, Darts, Skiing, My Cats, Car Mechanics, Club and Formula One Racing, RX-7's and RX-8's, Bars, Dance Clubs, Road Trips, and Gambling!
Birthday:
November 19
Favorite Color:
Orange ($1000 chips)
Alma Mater:
Georgia Tech
Reasons for Choosing Penn State:
Cool faculty, nice campus, college & party town, plenty of hot women in PSU, research oppurtunities, get away from the South, and they accepted me.
Justin CreppEmail: jcrepp @ astro.ufl.eduURL: http://www.astro.ufl.edu/~jcrepp/Moved to: University of FloridaLeft on: Fall 2004 (Advisor moved) |
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Research Interests:
Cosmology, Extra-solar planets, and Quantum Gravity
Research Advisor:
Other Interests:
Chess, Billiards, American Football
Birthday:
October 26
Favorite Color:
Blue
Alma Mater:
Penn State Behrend
Reasons for Choosing Penn State:
Diverse research opportunities. If you are a prospective student, do not hesitate to send me an email.
Pencheng GuoEmail: pcguo @ astro.psu.eduURL: N/AMoved to: University of FloridaLeft on: Fall 2004 (Advisor moved) |
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Research Interests:
Instrumentation, astronomical data processing, things about observaton.
Research Advisor:
Other Interests:
Basketball, badminton, bicycle, billiards; animation, sports game spectatoring, romance movie; Chinese music (Zhen, flute), classical guitar; scientific fiction and mythology; East Asian Culture; destroying and reparing things; packing; planning, dreaming, recalling memory; travelling and photographing; painting and computer painting; cats, plants; spending time with my wife.
Birthday:
N/A
Favorite Color:
all color presented by nature, and artificial colors arranged in harmony (If artificial, pls add some gray therein, or it will hurt my eyes).
Alma Mater:
Peking University
Reasons for Choosing Penn State:
In my PS for several universities I stated my interet in astronomical instrument and only PSU accept me. That obviously showed PSU is the best place I can conduct my purposed reserach.
Matthew TurkEmail: mturk @ slac.stanford.eduURL: http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/mturk/Moved to: Stanford UniversityLeft on: Fall 2004 (Advisor moved) |
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Research Interests:
Computer simulations of structure formation and large-scale interactions.
Research Advisor:
Other Interests:
Music, computers, linux, political activism
Birthday:
April 20
Favorite Color:
N/A
Alma Mater:
Northwestern University
Reasons for Choosing Penn State:
Impressive research, good emphasis on learning.
Laura LopezEmail: lalopez @ astro.psu.eduURL: http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/lalopez/Moved to: UC Santa CruzLeft on: Fall 2005 (transfer) |
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Research Interests:
X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy of X-ray Binaries and AGN
Research Advisor:
Other Interests:
Movies, Music, Photography, Art, Violin, Watching Chicago sports teams, Socializing, Sleeping, Eating Soup, Drinking Snapple, Super Mario Brothers 3
Birthday:
April 30
Favorite Color:
Red
Alma Mater:
M.I.T.
Reasons for Choosing Penn State:
I wanted to do high-energy astrophysics, and PSU has great connections to the Chandra and Swift telescopes.
Seth TimpanoEmail: timpano @ astro.psu.eduURL: N/AMoved to: Penn State PhysicsLeft on: Fall 2004 (transfer) |
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Research Interests:
General Relativity, Astrophysical Sources of Gravitational Waves, and LISA.
Research Advisor:
Other Interests:
Freeride Mountain Biking, Backpacking, Mountaineering, Climbing, Hunting, Chicago White Sox Baseball, The Simpsons, Quentin Tarantino Movies, and Good Beer.
Birthday:
August 13
Favorite Color:
Blue is a delightful color.
Alma Mater:
Montana State U.
Reasons for Choosing Penn State:
The Institute for Gravitational Wave Physics & Geometry, specifically the CGWP. PSU has a great faculty in both Astrophysics and Physics. State College is a nice place to live with good outdoor oppourtunities.
Christopher Levi DustonEmail: cduston @ astro.psu.eduURL: N/AMoved to: Florida State UniversityLeft on: Fall 2007 (transfer) |
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Research Interests:
High Energy Astronony, Galaxy Dynamics, Gravitational Physics
Research Advisor:
Other Interests:
Music (I play Double Bass)
Birthday:
August 10
Favorite Color:
Red
Alma Mater:
U. Massachusets, Amherst
Reasons for Choosing Penn State:
Working with Chandra data at UMASS made me look at the department, and the gravity research group sealed the deal.
Tamara BogdanovićEmail: tamarab @ astro.psu.eduURL: http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/tamarab/Moved to: Astronomy Department, University of MarylandGraduated in: Fall 2006 (PostDoc) |
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Research Interests:
Emission signature of massive black holes, as in the case of tidal disruption of a star by a massive black hole or a massive black hole binary.
Research Advisor:
Steinn Sigurðsson, Mike Eracleous
Other Interests:
Hmmmm, for me this is the hardest question of all. OK, there are things that I am interested in but had no chance to do. There are things that I am interested in and have done. There are things that I used to be interested in, but I'm not any more after I have or haven't done them. Not even to mention the things that I am only partially interested in, but I keep doing anyways. It's like running a Google search with the key words "other interests" (try it, it gives about 13e6 hits). To make a long story short, just come and talk to me, I'll tell you all about the fine classification of my other interests...
Birthday:
April 29
Favorite Color:
This is a big injustice to other colors, but lets say: green. I really like colors, I mean ALL of them. On a second thought, maybe not neon green and neon pink.
Alma Mater:
Belgrade University, Serbia & Montenegro (former Yugoslavia)
Reasons for Choosing Penn State:
Lots of research opportunities, friendly people (students and professors) and a cute, growing department
Karen LewisEmail: ktlewis @ milkyway.gsfc.nasa.govURL: http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/lewis/Moved to:NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 662Graduated in: Fall 2005 (PostDoc) |
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Research Interests:
Accretion Disks in AGNs, Weak-line Radio Galaxies, X-ray studies of Supernova Remnants
Research Advisor:
Other Interests:
Playing the piano, ballroom dancing (any kind), sailing (in my former life as an undergrad), cooking, camping, hiking, playing volleyball and soccer, Thursday night beer at the 'Skellar playing cards, and reading Mystery novels
Birthday:
March 31
Favorite Color:
Cerulean
Alma Mater:
University of Wisconsin
Reasons for Choosing Penn State:
I came here because it's a great place to learn and grow as an astronomer. The faculty are young, energetic and interactive. There's enough available research projects to try several things before settling down. I also really wanted to dig into the new Chandra data.
Michele StarkEmail: stark @ astro.psu.eduURL: http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/stark/Moved to: Wyoming NASA Space Grant ConsortiumGraduated in: Fall 2005 (Associate Director) |
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Research Interests:
Stars! Specifically, extreme horizontal branch stars (EHB, also called Subdwarf B stars, sdB) in the galactic field, and in particular those with unresolved FGK-type companions
Research Advisor:
Other Interests:
Books, outreach, drawing/art, photography, collecting and playing with toys (you should see my desk!), playing cards (esp. Eucher)
Birthday:
July 11
Favorite Color:
blue, J-Ks
Alma Mater:
Michigan State University
Reasons for Choosing Penn State:
Nice environment, really cool faculty, lots of research opportunities, Grunch
John DebesEmail: debes @ astro.psu.eduURL: http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/debes/Moved to: Carnegie Institution of WashingtonGraduated in: Fall 2005 (Postdoc) |
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Research Interests:
Aspects of formation, evolution, and detection of planets around intermediate mass stars.
Research Advisor:
Other Interests:
Reading, volleyball, soccer, jazz, anything involving a beach or mountains
Birthday:
December 5
Favorite Color:
silver
Alma Mater:
Johns Hopkins University
Reasons for Choosing Penn State:
Even though I originally looked at Penn State to appease my family (every member has gone to Penn State at one time or another), I came here because of the amazing opportunities, the great research, and the pleasant atmosphere. Also, there is ice cream within 5 minutes walking distance of our building
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