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.
Click on the staff/faculty name to access their contact info and homepage.
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: Michel Breger
Research Project: Investigating the seismology of stars using spacecraft data
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: None
Advisor: Volker Bromm
Research Project: The James Webb Space Telescope and the first supernovae
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Any
Advisor: Barbara Castanheira
Research Project: Spectroscopy of white dwarf stars
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Some computer skills
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: Discovering the most distant galaxies, and studying how they evolve with time, using large surveys such as CANDELS (candels.ucolick.org) and HETDEX (hetdex.org).
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: Gary Hill
Research Project: Instrumentation for the VIRUS instrument
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Interest in instrumentation. 10hr/week, 1 year committment.
Advisor: Chao-Ling Hung
Research Project: Massive galaxy cluster progenitors; Interacting galaxies and luminous infrared galaxies
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Basic familiarity with computers
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: Gamma-ray bursts and other topics related to stellar explosions
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Strong Theory preference
Advisor: John Lacy
Research Project: Data reduction and computer modeling of spectra
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Computer use
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: Edward Robinson
Research Project:
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Reducing and analyzing data
Advisor: John Scalo
Research Project 1: Models for turbulence and star formation
Research Project 2: Molecular biophysics on exoplanets
Research Project 3: Analysis of data on the stellar initial mass function
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Some programming experience preferred
Advisor: Paul Shapiro
Research Project: Cosmic Dawn: How the first galaxies formed, ended the dark ages, and reionized the Universe
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Students enrolled in the CNS Freshman Research Initiative can continue as summer scholars or mentors following their participation in the Cosmic Dawn FRI
Advisor: Ivan Ramirez
Research Project: Chemical composition of stars with Earth-like planets
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: No previous experience/skills is required
Advisor: J. Craig Wheeler
Research Project: Supernovae, late stages of stellar evolution
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Some computer skills
Advisor: Don Winget
Research Project: White dwarfs, open clusters, planets, debris disks
Research Term: Summer or Academic Year
Skills: Some programming or IRAF experience
