Don Winget
- Professor
- Director, Wootton Center for Astrophysical Plasma Properties
- Astronomy
Harlan J. Smith Centennial Professorship in Astronomy
Distinguished Teaching Professor
Keith Hawkins
- Associate Professor
- Astronomy
Mike Montgomery
- Research Scientist
- Freshman Research Initiative
- Astronomy
Dolores Groves
- WCAPP Office Manager
- Astronomy
Roberto Mancini
Professor of Physics
University of Nevada, Reno - Atomic and radiation physics of high-energy-density plasmas; Stark-broadened line shapes; radiation transport; x-ray spectroscopy of plasmas; multi-objective spectroscopic data analysis.
Contact: rcman@unr.edu
Collaborators
Bart Dunlap
Research Associate
Bart Dunlap is a UT Austin research assocaite working at Sandia National Labs. His work has centered on using white dwarf stars to elucidate broader areas of astrophysics. He has used observations of white dwarf stars to study failed supernovae, phase transitions at extreme temperatures and densities, and remnant exoplanetary systems. He has also been involved in a survey using spectroscopic observations to determine the temperatures and masses of white dwarf stars to inform asteroseismic investigations of their internal structure. He is now using the Z-machine at Sandia National Labs to observe the same plasma conditions seen in the stellar spectra with the goal of ensuring that models of the astronomical observations yield accurate representations of the stars themselves.
Contact: bhdunlap@utexas.edu
Daniel Mayes
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dan is a postdoctoral fellow with the University of Texas at Austin, Department of Astronomy. He received his Ph.D. in December 2020 from the University of Nevada, Reno under Dr. Roberto Mancini for his work investigating atomic kinetics in laboratory photoionized plasmas, which are important for astrophysical systems, such as x-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei. Prior to this, he earned his B.S. in Physics in 2011 and his M.S. in Physics in 2014 both from the University of Nevada, Reno. In 2014, he was awarded the Regents' Graduate Scholar Award. As a postdoc, he has been stationed at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM to work with Drs. Jim Bailey, Tai Nagayama, and Guillaume Loisel on solar interior opacity experiments performed with the Z Machine. He has also been leading oxygen opacity experiments at the National Ignition Facility of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Dan is a postdoctoral fellow with the University of Texas at Austin, Department of Astronomy. He received his Ph.D. in December 2020 from the University of Nevada, Reno under Dr. Roberto Mancini for his work investigating atomic kinetics in laboratory photoionized plasmas, which are important for astrophysical systems, such as x-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei. Prior to this, he earned his B.S. in Physics in 2011 and his M.S. in Physics in 2014 both from the University of Nevada, Reno. In 2014, he was awarded the Regents' Graduate Scholar Award. As a postdoc, he has been stationed at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM to work with Drs. Jim Bailey, Tai Nagayama, and Guillaume Loisel on solar interior opacity experiments performed with the Z Machine. He has also been leading oxygen opacity experiments at the National Ignition Facility of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Contact: dmayes@utexas.edu
Patricia Cho
Graduate Student
Patricia (Patty) Cho is a former graduate student of the WCAPP center. She earned her BA in Asian Studies and Applied Linguistics from Williams College in 2010 and returned to academia in 2015 to study astrophysics at Columbia University in New York. For her masters degree, she explored the physics of compact remnant cores of stars known as white dwarfs. In 2020, she received the Laboratory Residency Graduate Fellowship to support her PhD work studying experimental photoionized plasmas produced at black hole accretion disk conditions using the Z-machine at Sandia National Labs. She successfully defended her PhD in July of 2024. She is now based out of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as the 2024 HEDS Postdoctoral Fellow and has joined the NIF Fe Opacity Campaign collaboration.
Contact: patricia.cho@utexas.edu
Bryce Hobbs
Graduate Student
Contact: brycehobbs@utexas.edu
Malia Kao
Graduate Student
Malia is a 4th-year graduate student in WCAPP. She received her B.S. and M.S. in Physics at New Mexico Tech in Socorro, NM and was a student intern at Sandia National Laboratories. In her first two years as a graduate student at UT Austin, she studied crystallizing white dwarfs through pulsations using the 2.1-m Otto Struve Telescope at McDonald Observatory. In her third year, she began working on a project with Professor Keith Hawkins finding white dwarfs that are accreting planetary remains with machine learning. Using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, she is working on characterizing the atmospheres of these white dwarfs to better understand the composition of planetary interiors.
Malia is a 4th-year graduate student in WCAPP. She received her B.S. and M.S. in Physics at New Mexico Tech in Socorro, NM and was a student intern at Sandia National Laboratories. In her first two years as a graduate student at UT Austin, she studied crystallizing white dwarfs through pulsations using the 2.1-m Otto Struve Telescope at McDonald Observatory. In her third year, she began working on a project with Professor Keith Hawkins finding white dwarfs that are accreting planetary remains with machine learning. Using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, she is working on characterizing the atmospheres of these white dwarfs to better understand the composition of planetary interiors.
Contact: mlkao@utexas.edu
Jackson White
Graduate Student
Jackson is a 4th-year graduate student in the WCAPP center. He graduated from Rice University in 2021, with a BS in Astrophysics. His work at UT Austin focuses on modelling spectral line shapes and hot dense plasmas at stellar atmosphere and solar interior conditions. He is a fellow in the DOE NNSA Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship program, and is currently based out of Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Jackson is a 4th-year graduate student in the WCAPP center. He graduated from Rice University in 2021, with a BS in Astrophysics. His work at UT Austin focuses on modelling spectral line shapes and hot dense plasmas at stellar atmosphere and solar interior conditions. He is a fellow in the DOE NNSA Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship program, and is currently based out of Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Contact: jacksonwhite@utexas.edu