Astronomy and Astrophysics Seminars
The seminar generally meets on Fridays at 11am in Room 404 of the Collaborative Learning and Innovation Complex (CLIC) at 574 Boston Ave, Medford, MA 02155.
If you would like to present your research work in this venue, please don’t hesitate to email Jamie Lin.
Spring ’25
| DATE | SPEAKER | TITLE (Click for Abstracts) |
| Jan 17, 2025 | ||
| Jan 24, 2025 | ||
| Jan 31, 2025 | N/A | |
| Feb 7, 2025 | ||
| Feb 14, 2025 | ||
| Feb 21, 2025 | ||
| Feb 28, 2025 | ||
| Mar 7, 2025 | ||
| Mar 14, 2025 | ||
| Mar 21, 2025 | N/A | Spring Break |
| Mar 28, 2025 | ||
| Nov 29, 2025 | ||
| April 4, 2025 | ||
| April 11, 2025 | ||
| April 18, 2025 | ||
| April 25, 2025 | ||
Fall ’24
| DATE | SPEAKER | TITLE (Click for Abstracts) |
| Sep 13, 2024 | Max Ammons, Lucy Howell, Nehir Ozden, Leo Sajkov, Sophia Truex | Tufts Undergraduate Summer Research |
| Sep 20, 2024 | Erin Kado-Fong | Chat with Colloquium Speaker |
| Sep 27, 2024 | John Weaver (University of Massachusetts Amherst) | Resolving the first cosmic beasts and their tensions with JWST/NIRSpec |
| Oct 4, 2024 | Daniel Muthukrishna (MIT) | From Squiggles to Signals: Using AI for Discovery in Time-Domain Astronomy |
| Oct 11, 2024 | N/A | |
| Oct 18, 2024 | Juliana García-Mejía (MIT) | First Light Results from the Tierras Observatory, An Ultra-precise Time-series M-dwarf Photometer |
| Oct 25, 2024 | Bernadette Mary Dineen (Tufts University) | Searching for Life: Analytical Identification and Characterization of Extraterrestrial Biomarkers in a Martian Environment |
| Nov 1, 2024 | Tirna Deb (CfA | Harvard & Smithsonian) | Social Life of Galaxies in A2626 Galaxy Cluster and Beyond |
| Nov 8, 2024 | Rohan Naidu (MIT) | All the Little Things: Seeking Signatures of Pop III Stars and the Protagonists of Reionization with JWST |
| Nov 15, 2024 | Vadim Semenov (CfA | Harvard & Smithsonian) | Turbulent Formation of First Galaxies and Galactic Disks |
| Nov 22, 2024 | Lamiya Mowla | Chat with Colloquium Speaker |
| Nov 29, 2024 | No Seminar | Thanksgiving Break |
| Dec 6, 2024 | Paola Domínguez Fernández (CfA | Harvard & Smithsonian) | AGN jets in merging galaxy clusters |
Spring ’24
Fall ’23
| DATE | SPEAKER | TITLE (Click for Abstracts) |
| Special Astro Seminar Sep 28, 2023 (Thu 10:30AM) | ChangHoon Hahn (Princeton University) | ML x Cosmology with 50 Million Galaxies |
| Sep 29, 2023 | Nicholas Martis (Saint Mary’s University) | Early Results from the CANUCS JWST Observations |
| Oct 6, 2023 | Prof. Dan Clemens (Boston University) | Chat with Colloquium Speaker |
| Oct 13, 2023 | Prof. Burcin Mutlu-Pakdil (Dartmouth University) | Chat with Colloquium Speaker |
| Oct 20, 2023 | Allison McCarthy (Boston University) | Multiple Patchy Cloud Layers in the Atmosphere of SIMP0136 |
| Oct 27, 2023 | Ritika Sethi (MIT) | Tidal Synchronization and Stellar Activity on Low Mass Eclipsing Binaries with TESS |
| Oct 31, 2023 | Benedetta Vulcani (Osservatorio di Padova) | The effects of the ICM on gas and star formation histories of galaxies at low redshift |
| Nov 3, 2023 | Prof. John Chisholm (UT Austin) | Chat with Colloquium Speaker |
| Nov 10, 2023 | No Seminar | Veteran’s Day |
| Nov 17, 2023 | Fabio Pacucci (CfA) | Searching for Black Holes From the Nearby to the Faraway Universe |
| Nov 24, 2023 | No Seminar | Thanksgiving |
| Dec 1, 2023 | Adina Feinstein (University of Colorado Boulder) | Chat with Colloquium Speaker |
Spring ’23
| DATE | SPEAKER | TITLE (Click for Abstracts) |
| Feb 6, 2023 | Megan Masterson (MIT) | Probing Extreme Accretion Physics with Changing-Look AGN and Tidal Disruption Events |
| Feb 13, 2023 | Eric Koch (CfA | Harvard & Smithsonian) | The atomic interstellar medium’s role in the star formation lifecycle: sharpening our view of nearby galaxies with LGLBS and PHANGS-JWST |
| Feb 20, 2023 | No Seminar | President’s Day |
| Feb 27, 2023 | Tufts Students | Presentations on Telescopes |
| Mar 6, 2023 | Kevin Croker (University of Hawaii) | What’s inside astrophysical black holes? |
| Mar 13, 2023 | Andra Stroe (CfA | Harvard & Smithsonian) | Shocking tales of structure formation: Evolving galaxies and black holes in evolving environments |
| Mar 20, 2023 | No Seminar | Spring Break |
| Mar 27, 2023 | Itamar Allali (Tufts University) | Light Dark Sectors Attempting to Restore Cosmological Concordance |
| Apr 3, 2023 | Gourav Khullar (University of Pittsburgh) | When and where does star formation stop? Stellar Mass Assembly and Quenching in High-Redshift Galaxies |
| Apr 14, 2023 (Friday, 3pm) | Floor Broekgaarden (CfA | Harvard & Smithsonian) | TBD |
| Apr 17, 2023 | No Seminar | Patriots Day |
| Apr 24, 2023 | Jesse Han (CfA | Harvard & Smithsonian) | TBD |
| May 1, 2023 | TBD | TBD |
Fall ’22
| DATE | SPEAKER | TITLE (Click for Abstracts) |
| Sep 30, 2022 | Claire Lamman (CfA | Harvard & Smithsonian) | Fake Redshift-Space Distortions: How intrinsic alignment of galaxies will bias clustering statistics for the DESI survey |
| Oct 7, 2022 | Ole König (Remeis Observatory) | X-ray detection of a nova in the fireball phase (Zoom link) |
| Oct 14, 2022 | Bryanne McDonough (BU) | Testing Feedback Models: Resolved Star Formation in Simulated TNG100 Galaxies |
| Special Astro Seminar Oct 18, 2022 Room 316 @10:30am | Prof. Kim-Vy Tran (University of New South Wales – Australia) http://www.kimvytran.org | Galaxy Evolution with ASTRO 3D (Zoom link) |
| Special Seminar for graduate students only Oct 18, 2022 Room 206 @2pm | Prof. Kim-Vy Tran (University of New South Wales – Australia) http://www.kimvytran.org | Being Captain of Your PhD |
| Oct 21, 2022 | Sara Issaoun (NHFP Einstein Fellow at the CfA | Harvard & Smithsonian) | Our supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* across the radio band |
| Oct 28, 2022 | Rohan Naidu (NASA Hubble Fellow at MIT Kavli Institute) | The First Glimpse of the First Galaxies with JWST |
| Nov 4, 2022 | Adina Feinstein (University of Chicago) Lilianna Houston (University of Denver) Justin Hudson (Colorado State University) | Tuft Alumni: Where Are They Now and Tips for Grad School Application |
| Nov 11, 2022 | No Seminar | Veteran’s Day |
| Nov 18, 2022 | Jingyi Wang (MIT) | Disk, corona, jet connection in black hole X-ray binaries |
| Nov 25, 2022 | No Seminar | Thanksgiving |
| Dec 2, 2022 | Minjung Park (CfA | Harvard & Smithsonian) | Rapid quenching of galaxies at Cosmic Noon: How galaxies grow and die rapidly in the early Universe |
| Dec 9, 2022 | Jed McKinney (University of Texas) | Into the Dusty Universe: Obscured Star-formation from Today to Cosmic Noon and Beyond |
Past Astro Seminars
10/15/2021:
Professor Dimitar Sasselov, Harvard University
Discussion with the Professor before his colloquium talk.
10/8/2021:
Jason Reeves, Tufts Undergraduate
Title: Investigating the Environments of X-ray and IR Detected AGN in the XMM-LSS Field
Abstract: Unified AGN models dictate observed differences in AGN as a result of differences of orientation with respect to the host galaxy. Unification models of AGN are expected to show no differences in the environments around the host galaxy of an AGN. In this study, we demonstrate differences in the environments in which IR and X-ray AGN are detected. Using IR data collected by the HELP survey from the Herschel Space Observatory and X-ray data collected by the XSERVS survey from the Spitzer Space Telescope we compile a sample of 20,064 IR-detected AGN and 4,008 X-ray detected AGN. By analyzing the location of X-ray and IR detected AGN compared to density maps of multiple redshift slices from Krefting et al, 2020 in the range 0.1<z<1.6 we evaluated the density around the host galaxy of an AGN. We find IR AGN are found in denser environments than X-ray AGN and when controlling for the stellar mass of the host galaxies there is a correlation between IR AGN percentage and the density of the surrounding environment.
10/8/2021:
Andi Gray, Tufts Undergraduate
Title: Galaxy Cluster Weak Lensing in the Radio
Abstract: We present steps towards the first significant measurement of galaxy cluster-driven weak lensing using only radio data. This work employed a stacked catalog of cluster images, in an attempt to mitigate noise domination from low source-density in any single radio image. At this stage, we report a mass estimate for the cluster stack of 8.405±0.345 × 10^14 [Msol] at 1.68±0.22σ. However, we believe our initial bootstrapped significance analysis likely underestimated this confidence value, especially given the clear strength and profile of the lensing signal. Our progress is discussed in the context of established work in the optical, as well as existing methods involving radio input. Additionally, we motivate the advantages of including radio observations in weak lensing work, highlighting upcoming relevant surveys and science instruments. Finally, we comment on coming improvements to this work, mostly in source screening and algorithm optimization.
10/1/2021:
Peter Maksym, Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Center for Astrophysicists
Title: The Galaxy Scale Imprint of the Nuclear Black Hole IC 5063
Abstract: At only ~50 Mpc, IC 5063 hosts one of the most powerful radio Seyfert 2 nuclei in the local universe. The combination of a bright heavily obscured AGN with powerful outflows directed into the plane of the galaxy makes IC 5063 an intriguing laboratory for the multiwavelength investigation of feedback from an AGN, as well as the galaxy-scale imprint of its ionizing radiation. I will discuss the presence of novel galaxy-spanning continuum features observed with Hubble in the near-infrared, which are likely caused by either galaxy-scale shadows cast by the torus or by the effects of galaxy-scale lateral outflows on a reflective dusty halo. I will present high-resolution Hubble narrow-line imaging data that suggests at least some LINER emission is caused by collisionless shocks as AGN outflows propagate into highly ionized precursor material. I will discuss how high-resolution Chandra imaging spectroscopy supports this picture, and how Hubble and Chandra together describe the transition to Seyfert-like emission in the bicone, resolving hard continuum and Fe K-alpha emission extended on kpc scales, and strong jet-cloud interactions capable of exciting helium-like Fe XXV. I will also discuss the role of social media in enabling some of these results.
9/24/2021:
Kalina Nedkova Tufts PhD Student
Title: How Have Galaxies Grown in Mass and Size Over the Last 10 Billion Years?
Abstract: Signatures of the physical mechanisms that drive the formation pathways through which galaxies evolve are imprinted on their structure. In this talk, I will present how we have used a simultaneous multi-wavelength fitting approach to model the structure of HFF and CANDELS galaxies, which has allowed us to measure the sizes of faint, high redshift galaxies. Using these data, we have extended the stellar mass—size relation of galaxies over 0.2 ≤ z ≤ 2 to lower mass galaxies than previously studied at these redshifts. I will discuss key factors, which may be responsible for driving the shape and evolution of the relations that we obtain. Finally, by modeling galaxies as a composition of bulges and disks, we can further investigate mass and size growth as a function of redshift not only of galaxies but individual galaxy components. I will conclude with some preliminary results showing the stellar mass—size relation of bulges and discs, and a brief discussion of the exciting prospects with JWST, Euclid, and the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope.