AstroCon DC 2016

The GW Physics Department and Astronomy, Physics and Statistics Institute of Sciences (APSIS) are proud to host the 4th annual DC/VA/MD summer meeting focused on astronomy and astrophysics research by junior scientists (senior undergraduates, graduate students, junior postdocs). The aim of this meeting is to bring local students and researchers (e.g., faculty, post-docs, NASA researchers) together to interact, network and learn about other's research. The meeting will be held on July 15, 2016 at GWU's Science and Engineering Hall (SEH), the largest academic building dedicated to science and engineering in downtown Washington DC, located at 800 22nd St NW (at the corner of I and 22nd st). It is easily accessible by metro, only a short walk from either Foggy Bottom (Orange/Blue/Silver) or Farragut North (Red).

Presentations

Graduate and upper level undergraduate students as well as postdocs are invited to submit abstracts to present their research in the form of talks or posters. The format for talks will depend on how many participants register, but will be 10-15 minutes in length with 5 minutes for questions. The exact format will be announced after the registration deadline. There will be 2 coffee breaks and 1 lunch break, during which posters will be presented providing ample time for discussions focused on posters. Based on majority vote in the poll, the conference will be one day, July 15, 2016. We also plan to have several talks on hot modern-day astrophysics topics conducted by senior researchers. 

Program

Prof. Chryssa Kouveliotou (GWU): Welcome and opening words

Noel Klingler (GWU): Spectral Mapping of Pulsar Wind Nebulae

Jeffrey Cummings (JHU): Massive white dwarfs & the initial-final mass relation 

Sean Terry (CUA/NASA GSFC): Bayesian Analysis and Modeling of Gravitational Microlensing Events with Implications for WFIRST

Trevor Torpin (CUA): Anomalous vs. Normal Low States in LMC X-3

Ashlee Wilkins (UMD): Exoplanet Atmospheres in Exotic Environments: Hubble Studies of Transiting Giant Planets

Daniel Angerhausen (NASA GSFC): Sniffing Alien Atmospheres: Exoplanet spectrophotometry

Nicholas Troup (UVA): Combing the Brown Dwarf Desert with APOGEE

Justin Linford (GWU): The Strange Tale of Nova V1535 Sco

Allen Wang (ISU/NASA GSFC): Estimating Newton’s Gravitational Constant from Space with LISA Pathfinder Flight Data

Emmaris Soto (CUA): UV Clumps at 0.5 ≤ z ≤ 1.5 in the Deepest Field of the Universe

Daniela Huppenkothen (NYU): Invited talk: Exploring the Violent Universe: A Data Science Approach to X-ray Astronomy

Rafaella Margutti (Harvard CfA): Invited Talk: Stellar Explosions

Sean Linden (UVA): Massive Star Cluster Formation and Destruction in Luminous Infrared Galaxies

Jennifer Liang (UMD): Turbulence in galaxy clusters: a matter of gravity?

Israel Martinez-Castellanos (UMD): HAWC capabilities and results from the first year of operations

Aamir Ali (JHU): The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor

Steven Silverberg (OU/NASA GSFC): New Dusty Stars in Young Moving Groups from Disk Detective

Alex Richert (PSU/NASA GSFC): Gas-dust interactions in debris disks

Jeremy Hare (GWU): Applying Machine Learning to Understand the Nature of X-ray Sources

Blagoy Rangelov (GWU): Discovery of Far-UV Emission from Pulsar Bow Shocks

Oleg Kargaltsev (GWU): Concluding remarks

Contact

Local Organizing Committee
Jeremy Hare (GWU)
Noel Klingler (GWU)
Alexander van der Horst (GWU)
Oleg Kargaltsev (GWU)
Chryssa Kouveliotou (GWU)
Blagoy Rangelov (GWU)
George Younes (GWU)