The professors listed below have all expressed interest in having undergraduates work with them. Contact them individually to find out more about a specific research project.
Professor: Leo Blitz
Contact Information: blitz {at} astro.berkeley.edu, 633 Campbell Hall
Research Term: Summer
Research Project: Undergrad Assistant for Education and Outreach
Compensation: $13.26/hr, together with accommodation on site
Percent time: 100% (40 hrs/week)
Start: between May 15 and June 1, 2008
End: early to mid September 2008
Where: Hat Creek Radio Observatory (HCRO) hosts UCB's new Allen Telescope Array (ATA). The array is a joint project between the SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) Institute and UC Berkeley's Radio Astronomy Laboratory. The observatory is located near Burney in the Cascade Mountains, Shasta County California, about 70 miles east of Redding.
Primary duties: Contribute to the development of the Education/Public Outreach program at Hat Creek Observatory. Greet visitors and answer their questions; provide tours for large groups. Help produce educational materials (posters, handouts, presentations), and maintain the HCRO/EPO website.
The candidate will need to acquire a good understanding of scientific and technical aspects of the ATA equipment, along with its capabilities, performance and scientific programs. A student in physics or astronomy would be well suited. If time permits, the candidate may also become involved in support of the array, including performance testing and early science goals.
Required Qualifications: Ability to exercise good judgment and to maintain sensitivity to diverse populations. Excellent interpersonal and communications skills. Strong presentation skills. Must be willing to work on multiple assignments, set priorities, re-prioritize with ease in mid-task, and take initiative in defining and executing work.
Please send a resume and two references to rforster@astro.berkeley.edu, or by regular mail to Hat Creek Radio Observatory, 42233 Bidwell Rd, Hat Creek, CA 96040 c/o Dr. J.R. Forster. Applications close on May 7, 2008, or when the position is filled. See http://ral.berkeley.edu/ata/ for more information about the ATA, RAL, and HCRO.
Professor: Joshua Bloom
Contact Information: jbloom {at} astro.berkeley.edu, 447 Campbell Hall
Research Term: Summer or academic year
Research Projects:
Reach Professor Bloom's list of research projects for students here. He currently has projects available in the three different fields:
1. Gamma-Ray Bursts
2. Gravitational Microlensing
3. Transients Computing
Professor: Geoff Bower
Contact Information: gbower {at} astro.berkeley.edu, 621 Campbell Hall
Research Term: Summer or academic year (at least 5 hours/week)
Research Project: I am interested in using radio telescopes to explore the black hole at the center of the galaxy, to search for transient sources, to study the radio emission from stars, and to search for planets around stars. I am also interested in design and development of radio telescopes and techniques related to interferometry and radio frequency interference rejection. Students can work on projects related to Berkeley's new radio telescopes, the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) and the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter Astronomy (CARMA), as well as the Very Large Array and the Very Long Baseline Array.
For more information, visit Geoff Bower's website or the Radio Astronomy Lab website.
Professor: Marc Davis
Contact Information: marc {at} deep.berkeley.edu, 517 Campbell Hall
Research Term: Academic year, with possibility of staying on for the summer
Research Project: Work related to DEEP2, a large scale survey of distant field galaxies using the Keck Telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope. For more information, visit the DEEP2 homepage.
Professor: Alex Filippenko
Contact Information: alex {at} astro.berkeley.edu, 439 Campbell Hall
Research Term: At least 1 year. (The time commitment during the summer is only about 5 hours per week. The time commitment during the academic year can be minimal, as low as 2 hours per week, if the student's courseload is large.) The position is unpaid (at least for the first year or two), but students can get course credit.
Research Project: The Lick Observatory Supernova Search with the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope
I have space for several new undergraduate research students to help with the search for supernovae being conducted with my 0.75-meter robotic telescope at Lick Observatory, the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT). This is by far the world's most successful search for relatively nearby supernovae; we have found over 400 of them in the past 6 years. The basic idea is to use a CCD on KAIT to obtain images of about 1000 galaxies each night, and to automatically compare the new images with old ones in search of supernovae, which brighten suddenly. Humans must still check the candidates found by the computer software, because the automatic program registers quite a few false alarms. My students learn how to analyze astronomical images with existing software packages, write and debug their own computer programs, read and study published papers on supernovae, and so on. They receive official credit (on IAU Circulars) for supernovae that they discover. As they master the tricks of the trade, some of the upper-division students also learn how to derive accurate light curves from follow-up data that we obtain, and become coauthors on the resulting publications in refereed journals. The most advanced students even take charge of writing up their results for publication.
Prerequisites: Excellent knowledge of introductory astronomy, preferably at the Astronomy 7AB level (but outstanding performance in Astronomy 10 may be sufficient in some cases).