News and Events
Friday, May 13, 2022
4:30 – 6:30 p.m., rain or shine
McGuirk Alumni Stadium, UMass Amherst
The University Commencement is UMass Amherst’s official, large graduation ceremony. It is held outdoors, rain or shine, and includes graduates from all majors on campus. The university website posts information as it becomes available about planning your visit and information for seniors, such as how to get a cap and gown, how to arrange senior portraits, etc.
Saturday, May 14, 2022
9:00 – 11:00 a.m.
Mullins Center, UMass Amherst
Astronomy Senior Celebration
Saturday, May 14, 2022
TIme: 11:30-1:30
Place: Lederle Graduate Research Tower 1033
An international team of 300 astronomers, including our own Sandra Bustamante, Pete Schloerb, Kamal Souccar, and Gopal Narayanan, have unveiled the first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. The team, the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, used a worldwide network of radio telescopes, including the Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT), to obtain the first image of the glowing gas around the black hole. The LMT is operated jointly by UMass and the country of Mexico. Congratulations to Sandra, Pete, Kamal, and Gopal!
The 2022 Mary Dailey Irvine outstanding thesis prize goes to:
Meredith Stone
Thesis title: “The Coevolution of Star Formation and Supermassive Black Hole Accretion in Local Dusty Galaxies”
Advisor: Alexandra Pope
The Mary Dailey Irvine Prize is established through a gift from the Irvine Family to the Five College Astronomy Department in memory of Mary Dailey Irvine (Smith College 1922). This prize exists to encourage and honor excellent undergraduate research in astronomy and astrophysics. The prize is awarded to a graduating senior from one of the Five College institutions for an outstanding senior thesis or research paper presented to the department on an astronomical or astrophysical topic.
Congratulations Meredith!
Congratulations to astronomy student Meredith Stone, who has been selected to receive the Outstanding Astronomy Senior Award. The Outstanding Astronomy Senior Award is awarded to a graduating undergraduate student who has demonstrated outstanding performance across the multiple dimensions of academics, research, and community engagement.
Astronomy seniors Emily Martsen and Caleigh Ryan have been selected to receive the Astronomy Award for Academic Excellence. The Astronomy Award for Academic Excellence is awarded to a graduating undergraduate student who has achieved outstanding academic performance, through excellent GPA.
Congratulations to UMass Astronomy undergraduate student Sierra Gomez for being awarded the Five Colleges Lorna M. Peterson Prize for 2022. The Lorna M. Peterson Prize supports scholarly and creative work by undergraduate students taking part in Five College programs and cross campus collaborations. The Prize is awarded annually based on nominations from Five College programs.
Congratulations to Astronomy undergraduate students Samuel Millstone and Daniel Krista-Kelsey, who have been awarded the David J. Van Blerkom Scholarship for 2022. The scholarship is endowed by the Van Blerkom family and is awarded based on academic excellence to a University of Massachusetts undergraduate and supports a research internship for that undergraduate.
"Women are Creating a New Culture for Astronomy" is a recent opinion article on Scientific American, where quotes from Dr. Sinclaire Manning, a Hubble Fellow at the department of Astronomy, figure prominently. Thank you to Sinclaire for sharing her experiences and thoughts with the article's author.
You can find the article here.
The public is invited to celebrate the beginning of spring at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Sunwheel on Sunday, March 20. To mark the day of the vernal equinox, UMass astronomers will give talks explaining the astronomy of the seasonal changes at 6:45 a.m. and 6 p.m., while viewing sunrise and sunset among the standing stones of the Sunwheel.
More information can be found here.
Professor Kate Follette, faculty in the department of Physics at Amherst College and graduate faculty in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Massachusetts, was recently named one of the 2022 Cottrell Scholars.The Cottrell Scholars program is run by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement and the awards are very competitive, based on both research and teaching excellence.
More information here.
