After you've gotten started in research, the Berkeley astronomy department offers opportunities for you to learn how to give a talk and write a paper about your research, present your research in an undergraduate poster session, and earn your bachelor's degree with honors.
>>> AST 199: Research Presentation in Astronomy - Fall 2008
This course is designed for undergraduates who have completed at least one summer or semester of research in astronomy and want to learn how to effectively present their work. Topics include organizing a research paper, elements of good writing style, making figures, using LaTeX and BibTeX, working with PowerPoint, and public speaking. Using the skills learned in class, each student writes a research paper to submit to a journal and gives a short research talk. Essay writing for graduate school applications will also be discussed. For more information, visit the course website here or contact Mo Ganeshalingam.
>>> Physics and Astronomy Undergraduate Poster Session - April 8, 2008
The second annual Physics and Astronomy Undergraduate Poster Session was held on April 8, 2008, and will be repeated again in April 2009. At this event you'll present a poster about the research you've done, and the community is invited to attend the poster session to get a taste of the breadth and quality of research done by Berkeley undergraduates. Some posters will also be selected to be hung up for Cal Day. The poster session is held in LeConte Hall each April and we present an Astronomy Department Poster Award of $200 to the best astronomy poster, based on the content and presentation of the research project. Contact Julie Comerford with any questions or to sign up.
>>> The Senior Thesis and Honors in Astrophysics
If you have done research in astronomy, you may be eligible to graduate with honors. To earn honors, you must fulfill the following two criteria:
Remember to sign up for three units of Astronomy H195 in the fall if you plan to graduate in the spring.
Examples of Honors Theses supervised in the astronomy department include:
Kevin Bundy (Advisor: Geoff Marcy)
"A Search for
Transit Effects in Spectra of 51 Pegasi and HD 209458", Bundy, K.A. &
Marcy, G.W. 2000, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 112,
1421
Christopher Culter (Advisor: Eugene Chiang)
"The 1/5 Law
for Chaos in the Three-Body Problem at Moderate Eccentricity",
Culter, C.J. 2005, Honors Thesis in Physics
Amy Jordan (Advisor: Eugene Chiang)
"On
the Plutinos and Twotinos of the Kuiper Belt", Chiang, E.I. & Jordan, A.B. 2002, The
Astronomical Journal, 124, 3430
Emily Rauscher (Advisor: Geoff Marcy)
"Ca
II H and K Chromospheric Emission Lines in Late-K and M Dwarfs", Rauscher,
E. & Marcy, G.W. 2006, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific,
118, 617
Tim Robishaw (Advisor: Leo Blitz)
"A
Statistical Analysis of High-Velocity Clouds in the Leiden/Dwingeloo
Survey", Robishaw, T. 1998, Honors Thesis in Astrophysics
Josh Shapiro (Advisor: Leo Blitz)
"Detection of Low Temperature High Velocity Dispersion Feature in Galactic HI",
Shapiro, J. 2000, Honors Thesis in Astrophysics
Examples of other papers by Berkeley undergraduates supervised in the astronomy department include:
Verbanac, G., I. de Pater, M. Showalter and J.J. Lissauer, 2005. Keck Infrared Observations of Saturn's Main Ring System during Earth's 1995 Ring Plane Crossing, Icarus, 174, 241-252
Kloosterman, J.L., Dunn, D.E., and de Pater, I., 2005. Jupiter's Synchrotron Radiation Mapped with the Very Large Array from 1981 to 1998. Astrophysical Journal Supplement, 161, 520-550
Kloosterman, J.L., B. Butler, and I. de Pater, 2007. VLA observations of Jupiter's synchrotron radiation at 15 GHz. Icarus, in press