Headshot of Chris Richardson

Chris Richardson

Associate Professor of Astrophysics

Department: Physics

Office and address: Innovation Hall, Office 304D 2630 Campus Box Elon, NC 27244

Phone number: (336) 278-6281

Professional Expertise

Nebular astrophysics, extreme emission line galaxies, AGN, starbursts, HII / PDR / XDRs interfaces, galaxy chemical evolution

News & Notes

Education

Ph.D. Astrophysics, Michigan State University

M.S. Astrophysics, Michigan State University

B.S. Physics and Applied Physics, Eastern Illinois University

  • Magna Cum Laude
  • University Honors

 

Grants Awarded

"Elucidating the Nature of Intermediate Mass Black Holes in Local Dwarf Galaxies", PI: Chris Richardson, NASA Research Initiation Award, 2025, $300,000

"Compact Objects in Dwarf Galaxies: A Missing Piece to Elucidate Galaxy Evolution", PIs: Chris Richardson and Vianney Lebouteiller, FACE Foundation, Transatlantic Partnership Grant, 2021, $20,000.

Publications

asterisk denotes undergraduate researcher

  • Richardson C. T., Wels J.*, Garofali K., Levanti J. M.*, Lebouteiller V., Lehmer B., Basu-Zych A., Berg D., Bellovary J. M., Chisholm J., Kannappan S. J., Lambrides E., Polimera M. S., Ramambason L., Varese M., Vivona T.*, "Emission Line Diagnostics for IMBHs in Dwarf Galaxies: Accounting for BH Seeding and X-ray Binary Excitation", ApJ, accepted
  • Mingozzi M., Garcia Del Valle-Espinosa M., James B. L., Rickards Vaught R., Hayes M., Amorin R., Leitherer C., Aloisi A., Hunt L., Law D., Richardson C. T., et al., ”Exploring the mysterious high-ionization source powering [Ne V] in high-z analog SBS0335-052 E with JWST/MIRI”, 2025, ApJ, 985, 253
  • Varese M., Lebouteiller V., Ramambason L., Galliano F., Richardson C. T., Madden S. C., "Probing the heating of the neutral atomic interstellar medium in the Dwarf Galaxy Survey through infrared cooling lines," 2025, A& A, 693, 147
  • Lebouteiller V., Richardson C. T., Polimera M. S., Carr D. S., Hutchens Z. L., Kannappan S. J., Ramambason L., Moffett A. J., Varese M., Madden S. C., "Recovering the properties of the interstellar medium through integrated spectroscopy: application to the z ∼0 ECO volume-limited star-forming galaxy sample", 2025, A&A, 695, 31
  • Vizcarra C. L., Trainor R., McDonald A. R., Richardson C. T., Potoyan D., Nash J. A., Lundgren B., Luchko T., Hocky G. M., Foley J. M., Atherton T. J., Stokes G. Y., "Multidisciplinary network of professors tackle the challenges of incorporating interactive coding exercises into university-level science courses", 2024, Nature Comp. Sci., 4, 803
  • Chisholm, J., Berg, D. A., Endsley, R., Gazagnes, S., Richardson, C. T., Lambrides, E., Greene, J., Finkelstein, S., Flury, S., Guseva, N. G., Henry, A., Hutchison, T. A., Izotov, Y. I., Marques-Chaves, R., Oesch, P., Papovich, C., Saldana-Lopez, A., Schaerer, D., Stephenson, M. G., "[Ne v] emission from a faint epoch of reionization-era galaxy: evidence for a narrow-line intermediate mass black hole", 2024, MNRAS, 534, 2633

Awards

  • Japheth E. Rawls Endowed Professorship for Undergraduate Research
  • Elon College Excellence in Research Award