The following faculty and staff members in the UT Astronomy Department have openings for undergraduates to work with them on research. Contact them individually to find out more about a specific research project and ask about working with them. For an overview of research going on in the department, check out the department's Research Groups. Freshmen may also be interested in one of our CNS Freshman Research Initiative (FRI) streams.
The "Skills" entry describes the pre-requisite skills that the undergraduate would ideally need to have for the project. If you do not have all the skills, but are very motivated for a project and are willing to work hard to develop the relevant expertise, then do not be shy. Contact the faculty member to discuss a waiver of the pre-requisite skills or the possibility of taking the project after you take extra courses.
Once you start to work on a research project, please make sure to email the name of your research supervisor and the project topic to the Academic Program Coordinator at studentinfo@astro.as.utexas.edu. We need this information in order to nominate you for research awards and prizes.
Advisor: Volker Bromm
Research Project: The James Webb Space Telescope and the first supernovae
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Any
Advisor: John Chisholm
Research Project: Mapping the Size of Extreme Emission from the Brightest Gravitationally-Lensed Star-Forming Galaxies
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Any
Advisor: William Cochran
Research Project: Extrasolar planets, solar system
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Familiarity with computers (text editing, basic UNIX commands, simple programming) preferred
Advisor: Michael Endl
Research Project: Data analysis for exoplanet detection and precise radial velocities, activity studies of planet hosts, planet populations, stellar characteristics
Research Term: Any
Skills: Basic coding (Fortran, C, etc.)
Advisor: Neal Evans
Research Project: Star/Planet Formation; Working with infrared data from the Herschel Space Telescope. Assisting with collecting/archiving datasets, plus other science projects based on interests.
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Computer competence required; knowledge of IDL a plus but not required.
Advisor: Keely Finkelstein
Research Project: Star Formation and evolution in galaxies. Also possible projects in astronomy education research.
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Some computer/programming experience preferred
Advisor: Steven Finkelstein
Research Project: Prof Finkelstein is the PI of the Astronomy Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) program, and runs a team exploring galaxy evolution. Students join the team during their sophomore year with the goal of working on a sustained research project through graduation. The mix of sophoomores, juniors, seniors, and graduate students provides a vertical mentoring structure allowing students to achieve their self-defined goals by the time they leave the program. Current projects include the study of galaxies discovered with the UT-led HETDEX project (www.hetdex.org), and preparation for a James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Early Release Science program. Applications for joining this program will be solicited mid-fall semester, and will be advertised widely.
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Any
Advisor: Karl Gebhardt
Research Project 1: Dark Energy with HETDEX (hetdex.org)
Research Project 2: Black holes
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Any
Advisor: Michael Gully-Santiago
Research Project: Measuring starspot properties with TESS and K2 missions: a NASA-funded, paid student project
Resarch Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Completion of Math 427J or Math 427L
Advisor: Michael Gully-Santiago
Research Project: Open source software development for astrophysics with Python
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Any prior computer science course
Advisor: Keith Hawkins & Zack Maas
Research Project: Phosphorus is one of the key elements for life, yet we have no idea how it is formed. This project will explore how Phsosphorus is Created in Stars: A Study of the Chemical Composition of Peculiar Stars using Observations with the Habitable Zone Planet Finder Spectrograph
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Some program experience (e.g. in Python) is preferred
Advisor: Keith Hawkins
Research Project: Galactic Archaeology - Uncovering galactic formation, assembly, and structure with stellar astrophysics, big data, and machine learning
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Some programming in Python, basic astrophysics/stellar astronomy course
Advisor: Dan Jaffe
Research Project: Optical technology development for Astronomy
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: After instrumentation course
Advisor: Shardha Jogee
Research Project: Formation and evolution of galaxies and black holes
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Preferably computer/programming experience, or a course on galaxies.
Advisor: Pawan Kumar
Research Project: Astrophysics of some of the powerful transient objects in the universe such as Gamma-ray bursts, neutron star mergers and gravitational waves, and fast radio bursts.
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Strong Theory preference
Advisor: David Lambert
Research Project: Stellar atmospheres; chemical composition of stars; chemical evolution of the universe
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Depends on specific project. Some experience with IRAF desirable.
Advisor: Don Winget
Research Project: Experimental astrophysics, white dwarfs, open clusters, planets, debris disks
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Some programming or IRAF experience
