Research Coffee Breaks is a program sponsored by the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences to support undergraduates interested in starting on-campus research. We arrange meetings for students to meet with graduate students and post-docs over a coffee or snack to discuss the many opportunities to get involved with a research group in the department. This program is open to all interested students.

Research Ambassadors

Below is a list of our 'Ambassadors' who have agreed to meet with students to discuss their research, some of whom are looking to begin projects with undergrads. If you are interested in meeting with someone, please sign up using the form at the bottom of this page to reserve a spot on their coffee break, then meet at the APS Office in Duane E226 at the assigned time. Please sign up for no more than one coffee break per month, and please do not sign up if there are already 4 people signed up for that day! If you'd like to meet someone but you can't accommodate the scheduled day/time, please email the Ambassador directly about setting up a meeting at a different time. If you have any problems with this form, please email Andrew.

Matteo is a graduate student working with Professor Nick Schneider on the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) Instrument aboard MAVEN. In addition to helping the project with instrument performance, he has been working on observations of comet Siding Spring, which grazed Mars on Oct 19th, and which IUVS observed on Oct 17th, a once in a million year event .

MAVEN's IUVS measures light from the major molecules, atoms, ions and isotopes in the Martian atmosphere, to help understand atmospheric escape processes.

Matt, a graduate student, studies disks around young stars that may eventually form planets. By looking at the conditions of these disks (temperature, composition, etc.), scientists can better understand the environment of planet formation. Specifically, he models carbon monoxide absorption lines, neutral hydrogen absorption lines, and molecular hydrogen emission lines to extract disk temperatures, molecular abundances, and extinction characteristics.

The France Group takes both observations and builds instrumentation in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum. A few students in his group focus on modeling and interpreting UV data taken by the COS and STIS instruments on Hubble and others work on producing new UV instrumentation to be launched via rocket into the atmosphere and obtain new data.

Ben is a postdoctoral fellow at CASA and studies the evolution of galaxies, over the entire history of the universe. With his simulations, Ben's research has highlighted the important role of the intergalactic medium in shaping galaxies and regulating their growth. As stars convert hydrogen and helium into heavier metals, the nature of star and galaxy formation significantly changes, and so galaxy evolution in the early metal-poor universe operates differently than galaxy evolution today, and can be traced by different spectroscopic lines. Ben is also involved in projects looking to directly image planets around distant stars.

Courtney is a graduate student in the Physics Department and works with Professor Mark Rast and colleagues from the National Solar Observatory. She studies how changing structures on the Sun affect the total solar irradiance, which in turn drives Earth's atmosphere and climate. She analyzes images from ground-based telescopes, and is helping the NSO prepare for the new 4m solar telescope currently under construction in Hawaii.

Professor Rast's group combines observations with computer models to understand supergranulation and turbulent flows on the Sun. The National Solar Observatory , which will soon complete is move to Boulder, studies all aspects of the Sun and monitors it daily activity. Their work also uses the Sun as a laboratory for testing theories about stellar dynamics around the galaxy.

Morgan is a graduate student working with Professor Larry Esposito to understand how the Saturnian ring system evolves over time. Using observations from the UVIS instrument on NASA's Cassini spacecraft, Morgan uses stellar occultations to study structures in the rings as small as 1m, orders of magnitude smaller than what is possible using camera images. He is also an active blogger and science writer and communicator, operating the Cosmic Chatter astronomy blog.

The Planetary Rings Group at LASP designed and built the Cassini UVIS instrument, which make spectral observations of Saturn and its moons in the ultraviolet. The group combines these observations with computer simulations of ring particles to understand how ring systems evolve over time. This work is fundamental for understanding astrophysical disks throughout the universe, like the protoplanetary disk that formed the solar system.

Andrew is a graduate student and works with Professor Bob Ergun to analyze simulations of magnetic reconnection. He is studying the how magnetic fields lines break and reattach, the process that drives solar flares and the Earth's aurorae.

The Magnetospheres Of Planets Group studies the dynamics of the magnetic fields around Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and the other planets in the solar system. They combine theory, in situ and photometric observations, and numberical simulations to use the solar system as a laboratory for both comparative planetary science and fundamental physics.