Undergraduate Program in Astronomy
Astronomy Students Association annual trip to McDonald Observatory
The Department of Astronomy at UT Austin is one of the top 10 astronomy research programs in the United States. Our faculty members are among the worldwide leaders in cosmology, galaxies, stars, the interstellar medium, planets, the solar system, and instrumentation. With twenty-two active teaching faculty, seventeen research scientists, a number of research associates and postdoctoral fellows, 45 graduate and 90 undergraduate students, the department fosters a stimulating and friendly atmosphere that promotes intellectual development and diversity.
Our undergraduate students have the rare opportunity to take classes from, and conduct research with, some of the world's top astronomers. After students complete some core courses, our faculty/staff offer them exciting research opportunities, where they work with data taken by NASA's telescopes and with ground-based telescopes all over the world, including our own McDonald Observatory in West Texas.
We reward excellence in our students through a Freshman Prize for Excellence and numerous merit and research awards for advanced undergraduate students including the Karl G. Henize endowed scholarship, the Board of Visitors scholarship, and the Outstanding Senior Award. We provide financial support for our students to travel to conferences and observatories, including our McDonald Observatory in West Texas, where they benefit from the world's largest telescopes, advanced instrumentation, and dark skies. (Undergraduate Awards)
The Astronomy program helps to prepare undergraduate students for further education in graduate school or/and many career paths spanning education, research, computing, government and journalism. And above all, it gives students the opportunity to join the great intellectual adventures and explorations of astronomy.
If you have questions, please contact us at:
Student Coordinator
Department of Astronomy
RLM 15.202AA
Austin, TX 78712
phone: (512) 471-3350
fax: (512) 471-6016
hours: M-F: 8-12, 1-5 PM
Annual Departmental Award Winners - 2013
Arina Rostopchina (top)
and Miquela Stein
Arina Rostopchina was selected by faculty vote as the 2013 winner of the annual Karl Henize Memorial Scholarship. The award is made each year to a junior or senior who intends to pursue a graduate career in Astronomy. Arina is currently serving as co-president of the Astronomy Students Association (ASA), and has worked on research projects with Michel Breger as well as the Winget/Montgomery White Dwarf group.
Miquela Stein submitted this year's winning essay for the Board of Visitors (BoV) Undergraduate Scholarship. The award is given annually to an astronomy student for excellent overall performance. Miquela is currently serving as co-president of the ASA, and is an active member of the Winget/Montgomery White Dwarf FRI stream.
Kevin Luecke Wins 2013 Astronomy Department's Outstanding Senior Award
Under the supervision of Drs Winget and Montgomery, Kevin has been instrumental in the development of the Astronomy White Dwarf FRI stream. In addition to mentoring FRI students, he has also written code to interface with a new CCD camera recently purchased by the White Dwarf group, and uses the Antares 3D hydrodynamics code to run simulations of convection in white dwarfs on TACC supercomputers. Currently, he is re-writing one of the analysis codes to take advantage of the massive parallelism that PC graphics cards (GPUs) have to offer. Dr. Montgomery writes, "Kevin has the rare combination of keen physical insight and superb computing skills, and his work is of a uniformly high quality." He has personally taken observations on the 36-inch and 82-inch telescopes at McDonald Observatory, and has led groups of FRI students on observing runs at McDonald Observatory and Meyer Observatory. Kevin is a double major in Astronomy and Computer Science, and is writing his senior thesis under the guidance of Drs. Winget and Montgomery. Kevin was also recently honored with a campus-wide award for "Student Employee of the Year".
...more at In the News
Astronomy Students Association
Freshman Research Initiative
Exploring the Universe with White Dwarf Stars
Spring '12 Graduation Ceremony
