Announcements

Grad school in Statistics at Michigan

This sounds like a good opportunity for those of you graduating relatively soon who are interested in the statistical side of the sciences.

Fall 2018 Preview Weekend

November 9-10, 2018

The Department of Statistics at the University of Michigan invites juniors, seniors, recently graduated students, and Master’s students to visit us for a preview event to explore our graduate programs.  We are eager to bring students to our campus for this event who will contribute to our department’s mission of promoting diversity and inclusion in the fields of Statistics and Data Science.

During your visit, you’ll learn about:

  • state of the art research happening at the University of Michigan
  • the admissions process 
  • what graduate school is like and how it works

We welcome applications from those who come from a background that is traditionally underrepresented in Statistics and/or if you actively work towards promoting issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM fields. 

More information and the application can be found here.

Application Deadline: September 27, 2018

A reminder about email

Please use your OSU email account for all University business.  This includes anything concerning classes and enrollment, academic advising, financial matters, or records of your progress towards a degree.  OSU’s email system has safeguards for the protection of confidential material, whereas other mail systems may not.  Indeed, I am not supposed to reply to emails about university business from non-OSU hosts, except to tell a correspondent to please write again using the OSU system.

 

Paid undergrad research positions in Astronomy

Professor Terndrup (that’s me!) anticipates that there will be one or more paid positions for undergraduate researchers in the Autumn 2018 semester.  These will require a commitment of 10 to 20 hours per week, negotiable with the selected student(s), starting approximately the first week of classes and continuing through the end of finals week.  Depending on performance and other considerations, the positions may be extendable through the end of February, 2019.  The positions are contingent on the availability of funding.  Salary is anticipated to be $12 / hour.

The goal of the project is to understand how reliable are ages determined from stellar rotation rates.  In particular, we will focus on how the orbits of stars in the Milky Way, which are different for young and old stars, are correlated with ages derived from stellar rotation.

The selected student(s) will be part of a larger group which is attacking this problem in a variety of ways.  Consequently, there will be opportunities for students to focus on statistical analysis, data visualization, mining of data from the astronomical literature, or measurement of stellar properties from observational data. Preference will be given to students who have completed Astronomy 2292.

To express interest in the position, please send a short (say, 250 words) essay describing your interest in astrophysics, your current commitments for the fall semester, and what skills you can bring to the position (programming, previous research experience, etc.).  Send this by email to terndrup.1@osu.edu.  While there is no deadline, preference will be given to those to respond by July 1, 2018.

The submitted essay does not constitute a formal job application.  Selected students will be asked to apply formally for the position during July.

You may send inquiries about these positions any time to me using the email address above.

Astronomy 2895 (Autumn semester)

Hi everyone,

It’s been a long time since I posted anything on the blog.  Spring semester was crazy, with both professional and personal matters that required my full attention.  But now that summer is here, I’m able to get back to posting news and other items of interest to majors in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

I would like to bring your attention to our seminar Astronomy 2895.  This seminar is intended for first- and second-year students, but anyone can take it.  The course description reads

Prospective astronomy majors will meet weekly with different astronomy faculty to learn about current research topics, facilities, and opportunities available in the undergraduate astronomy program.

In the upcoming semester, we will have several lectures and Q/A sessions with faculty, postdocs, and senior students, who will tell us about their research into astrophysics, physics education, and many other topics. We will also have lots of discussion on study habits and survival skills for Astro majors, along with small research projects you can undertake in areas that interest you. This is a great way to see the variety of research and teaching opportunities in our department, to meet others who are excited by astrophysics, and (especially for early students) to explore ways to be successful in astronomy or any other topic.

The seminar meets Tuesday afternoons from 4:10 to 5:05 in 1005 Smith Laboratory.

Banneker-Aztlan Institute at Harvard

This morning I received an announcement from Harvard about a summer research opportunity for students from groups underrepresented in astronomy.

From their website, the Banneker-Aztlan Institute

The Banneker-Aztlán Institute summer program is a full-time, ten-week research and study experience. We prepare undergraduate students of color for graduate programs in astronomy by emphasizing research, building community, and encouraging debate and political action through social justice education.

Requirements are demographic information about yourself, a resume, and short essays on personal development and your aspirations for astronomy.  Academic transcripts and letters of recommendation are not required.  Students receive a competitive stipend to cover food and other personal expenses during the program.

Who should apply?  Again, from their website:

Our programs target undergraduate juniors from backgrounds historically marginalized from academia and the astronomical sciences in particular. While there is a preference for students of color, we welcome applications from students of all backgrounds. Our application review process considers historical disparities and the tendency for traditional application practices to reproduce racial disparities in academia.

The deadline is February 15, so if you are interested you should move quickly.

Elementary school education opportunity

Here’s an email I received recently.  Note that the first orientation session is very soon.

Are you interested in helping elementary students understand science by engaging them in hands-on activities? Then Scientific Thinkers is for you! The Scientific Thinkers program is designed to bring OSU undergraduate and graduate scientists into the 1st – 5th grade classrooms at Innis Elementary, a Columbus public school. The Scientific Thinkers program sends scientist volunteers out to the school every other week during the school year to teach a hands-on lesson (the lessons will be available prior to going to the classroom).

Before going to the school, each volunteer must complete an orientation. The orientation for this program will be Tuesday, January 23, at 1:00 pm in 1080 Physics Research Building. Immediately following the orientation, we will also have a training session covering the visits in January and February.

It is important to note that the classroom visits are on Tuesdays and you are in the classroom teaching from 2:00-3:00pm, but you need to be ready to leave campus by no later than 1:00 pm in order to make it to the school and have time for set up. Also, the school is about twenty minutes away from campus. We help set up carpools for the volunteers.

Please let us know if you are unable to attend this orientation session, but are interested in volunteering for the program. Please RSVP to scientificthinkers@gmail.com if you plan to attend.

For more information about the program, please visit: https://u.osu.edu/cemscientificthinkers/

If you have any questions or are interested in volunteering, please reply to scientificthinkers@gmail.com.

Thanks and see you at orientation!

Michelle McCombs, Annika Diaz, and Erin Rinehart
Scientific Thinkers Coordinators

Scholarship and Award Opportunities

There are a couple of scholarship and award opportunities that have approaching deadlines.

  1. Arts and Sciences Merit and Need-Based Awards (deadline February 1).
  2. Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Scholarship and International Research Grant (deadline February 5).  Note that non-Honors students may apply for these.

Historically, Astronomy students have done very well in these competitions.  At the very least, applying is very good practice for future job searches or applications for graduate school.  And if you win, consider that it’s a tremendous payoff for the 8 or 10 hours you would spend writing a really compelling essay (when that’s required).

Astronaut Greg Johnson to visit OSU January 8

Here’s an email I received this morning.
Hello from the College of Nursing. We have an upcoming event that astronomy students (and their instructors as well) might be interested in: astronaut Greg Johnson will be coming to visit on January 8th. Johnson has served as an Air Force T-38 flight trainer, a space shuttle pilot/NASA engineer. He piloted Endeavor to the International Space Station twice, spent over 30 days on the International Space Station and orbited the earth almost 500 times. Currently, he’s the director of CASIS, which manages the International Space Station’s lab.
On January 8, Johnson will come to the College of Nursing’s Innovation Studio, our moveable maker space, which will be at the College of Engineering, in Dreese Hall. For more information, see this article on our website. CASIS is challenging OSU students, faculty and staff to dream up innovations that might be testable on the International Space Station.
 
All students, faculty and staff are welcome at the free reception at noon in Dreese Hall. (to register, click here.)
Would you please share this information at morning coffee—and anywhere else it might find interested listeners?
Thank you!