MIfA Update Fall 2020

Dear friends of MIfA,

2020 has certainly been a remarkable year so far.

In this newsletter, I have a lot of good news to share from the past academic year. Hopefully you will find this news a welcome break from the topics that have dominated the national news over the last few months.

In the last year, Professor Larry Rudnick retired. Of course, for most of our faculty, retirement represents more of a change in status, as opposed to a termination of a career. Larry has changed offices, and we welcomed our newest faculty member, Michael Coughlin, who has moved into Larry's previous office. Larry presented us with a "last lecture" colloquium in the fall and Michael gave us an introductory colloquium this spring.

Another important transition is responsible for the production of this newsletter. Katie Sauer joined us as our institute administrator this April. Although starting a new job during a pandemic may not be viewed as ideal, by all measures, Katie is off to a great start (even though she hasn't met most members of MIfA in person yet!).

Last fall, we participated in the University's "Give to the Max Day" fundraising event. I chose to promote our Astronomy Fund, which provides support for a range of undergraduate and graduate student activities. Nine MIfA faculty provided a $5,000 pledge, which qualified us for extra College of Science and Engineering assistance in promotion, and this amount was more than matched with a total of $11,390 in contributions to the Astronomy Fund. The majority of the additional donations came from our graduate student alumni and a large fraction of these funds will be dedicated to support graduate student activities. Thanks to all who participated!

In May, Liliya Williams and Bob Gehrz gave virtual handshakes to our graduating undergraduate majors. Despite the online venue, it still represented an exciting graduation event.

We're very excited about our newest class of graduate students. Five new students are joining us this fall, including one new international graduate student who successfully navigated the visa process. Two of our graduate students defended their Ph.D. theses this summer. Matt Gomer (advised by Liliya Wiliams) is off to a postdoctoral researcher position in Belgium and Chris Nolting (advised by Tom Jones) is off to a position mixing research and teaching in South Carolina.

Looking forward, this coming year will be the first year of our National Science Foundation Graduate Research Training program titled "Data Science in Multi-Messenger Astrophysics." MIfA faculty members Vuk Mandic, Claudia Scarlata, Lucy Fortson, and Pat Kelly are all involved in this program that brought $3 million to the University of Minnesota. Students participating in this program receive a minor Ph.D. degree in Data Science in Astrophysics (in addition to their Ph.D. in Physics or Astrophysics) and have opportunities to participate in technical and professional training workshops and various outreach activities.

Best wishes and stay healthy!

Evan Skillman, Director
Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics
College of Science and Engineering
University of Minnesota