Keith Hawkins

Before UT, Dr. Hawkins completed a postdoctoral fellowship as a Simons Junior Research Fellow at Columbia University in the city of New York between 2016-18. Before that, he completed his Ph.D. in 2016 at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge UK , under a Marshall Scholarship , and King’s College Cambridge Studentship. He primarily worked with Prof. Gerry Gilmore and Prof. Paula Jofre (now at UDP, Chile). His Ph.D. dissertation was entitled "Dissecting the Milky Way with Spectroscopic Studies” can be found here. Before his time at the University of Cambridge, he received my B.S. in Astrophysics (with minors in Mathematics and African Studies) from Ohio University in 2013. Dr. Hawkins has been an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas since 2018, and an Associate Professor since 2023.
 

Dr. Hawkins is currently an Associate Professor of Astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin . He is primarily interested in a field called 'Galactic Archaeology' which is aimed at exploring the Milky Way Galaxy (its formation, evolution and structure). He uses stellar spectroscopy as his primary astrophysical tool. He is also a member/CoI of the newly created Wootten Center for Astrophysical Plasma Properties (CAPP) at UT Austin.

His main interest is in using multi-object spectroscopic surveys to better understand the chemo-dynamic properties of the Milky Way (Galactic Archaeology). His expertise is in high- to low-resolution spectroscopy and stellar chemical abundance patterns. For a full CV click here