Research in Astronomy at Texas A&M

The Astronomy group at Texas A&M is an inclusive and supportive community that offers a strong PhD program for observational and theoretical astronomy. Students are able (and expected) to start research projects as soon as they arrive and are encouraged to work with multiple advisors during their education. First and second year students are able to dive into research while taking classes; many publish papers and present at conferences. This early start gives students a strong foundation in the skills necessary to succeed in their career (in academia or elsewhere).

The research conducted here can be broken into a few general groups: extragalactic astronomy, galactic astronomy, supernovae, variable stars & transients, cosmological parameters, and astronomical instrumentation. However, not all faculty fall into a single category, and collaboration between these groups is common. We also list facilities and surveys we frequently use.

Extragalactic Astronomy

For more details, see the faculty list.

  • Active Galactic Nuclei and black hole growth (Jonelle Walsh, Krista Smith)
  • Epoch of reionization (Casey Papovich)
  • Feedback in galaxy evolution (Casey Papovich, Krista Smith)
  • Galaxy formation and evolution (Robert Kennicutt, Casey Papovich, Nicholas Suntzeff, Justin Spilker)
  • High-redshift observations (Casey Papovich, Justin Spilker)
  • Large-scale structure (Casey Papovich, Nicholas Suntzeff)
  • Star formation and the interstellar medium (Robert Kennicutt, Casey Papovich, Justin Spilker)
  • Supermassive black hole-host galaxy scaling relations, co-evolution, and growth (Jonelle Walsh, Krista Smith)
  • Supermassive black hole mass measurements (Jonelle Walsh)

Galactic Astronomy

For more details, see the faculty list.

  • Chemical Nucleosynthesis (Jennifer Marshall)
  • Dark Matter Theory (Louis Strigari)
  • Galactic Structure and Substructure (Louis Strigari)
  • Near-Field Cosmology (Jennifer Marshall, Louis Strigari)
  • Stellar Kinematics (Louis Strigari)

Supernovae, Variable Stars & Transients, and Cosmological Parameters

For more details, see the faculty list.

  • Electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational-wave sources (Darren DePoy, Jennifer Marshall)
  • Extragalactic distance scale (Robert Kennicutt, Lucas Macri, Nicholas Suntzeff, Lifan Wang)
  • Stellar populations (Nicholas Suntzeff)
  • Supernovae (Peter Brown, Nicholas Suntzeff, Lifan Wang)
  • Variable stars (Jennifer Marshall)

Astronomical Instrumentation

List of current/past instrumentaion projects at the Munnerlyn Astronomical Instrumentation Laboratory.

Current Projects

  • (GMACS) The Giant Magellan Telescope Multi-object Astronomical and Cosmological Spectrograph
  • (MSE) Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer
  • GMT Mirror Actuators
  • (ETSI) The Exoplanet Transmission Spectroscopy Imager
  • (TOROS) Transient Optical Robotic Observatory of the South
  • (TCAL) Traveling Calibration unit

Past Projects

Facilities and Surveys We Use

Facilities we frequently use: