In a span of only three weeks, student researchers in astrophysics gave an astounding ten presentations at venues across the nation.
The astrophysics research group, led by Associate Professor Chris Richardson, recently went on a whirlwind of a tour to present their latest research findings. Students in the research group presented their work in both oral and poster formats at various institutions including University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University and Elon University to both general audiences and experts.
At the National Conference for Undergraduate Research, physics major Jordan Wels ’24 and astrophysics major Thomas Vivona ’23 gave poster presentations on the national stage about their work on modeling dwarf galaxies with active intermediate mass black holes.
Shortly thereafter, Vivona was invited to give a guest oral presentation for an astrophysics research group at UNC-Chapel Hill where he fielded questions from experts in his area of research. At the North Carolina Space Symposium held at NC State, Vivona also gave poster presentation to an audience ranging from high school students to astrophysics faculty. Engineering and astronomy major Sam DiRenzo ’24 and astrophysics major Jules Levanti ’25 attended the symposium to network with industry professionals and gain insight into the latest research.
Afterwards, DiRenzo presented a poster at the Integrating Science in Research conference on her research focusing on matching multiple galaxy surveys to better constrain galaxies with actively accreting intermediate mass black holes. Both Wels and Vivona were invited to give colloquium presentations at the weekly “Physics & Astro Tea” before their oral presentations on Elon’s SURF Day. DiRenzo also presented a research poster at SURF.
All together, these ten student presentations over the course of three weeks represent tremendous hard work and dedication from the entire research team. The group meets bi-weekly to discuss their research progress and practice informal presentations to guest speakers. Next year, Vivona will be attending graduate school at the University of Georgia to pursue a Ph.D. in astrophysics.