Director, McDonald Observatory , McDonald Observatory , College of Natural Sciences
+1 512 471 3300, taft@astro.as.utexas.edu

Taft Armandroff's work includes the study of dwarf spheroidal galaxies, stellar populations in the galaxy and nearby galaxies, globular clusters, and astronomical instrumentation.

Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

Assistant Professor , Department of Astronomy , College of Natural Sciences
, daberg@austin.utexas.edu

Danielle Berg's research focuses on bridging our deepest understanding of galaxies, which comes from the local galaxies in our backyard, with the first seeds of galaxies in the very distant and early universe. To accomplish this, she uses space- and large ground-based observatories to study the spectral properties of light from star-forming regions.

Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

Research Associate , Department of Astronomy , College of Natural Sciences
, wbest@utexas.edu

William Best is a postdoctoral fellow working on the low-mass end of star formation using Hubble Space Telescope observations of large star-forming regions. His research includes brown dwarf and low-mass stars, ultracool binaries, stellar and substellar kinematics and populations, protoplanetary disks, characterization of extrasolar planets, infrared astrometry, imaging and spectroscopy, and large sky surveys.

Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

Associate Professor , Department of Astronomy , College of Natural Sciences
, bpbowler@astro.as.utexas.edu

Brendan Bowler is interested in how planets form and evolve over time, which he address by finding exoplanets and characterizing their physical, orbital, and atmospheric properties at the individual and population levels. His research group focuses on questions related to the statistical patterns, orbital evolution, architectures, and circumplanetary (moon-forming) disks of exoplanets and brown dwarfs from an observational perspective. They use a broad range of ground- and space-based telescopes spanning the optical, infrared, and sub-mm wavelengths with an emphasis on high-contrast adaptive optics imaging, near-infrared spectroscopy, and precision radial velocities.

Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

Associate Professor , Department of Astronomy , College of Natural Sciences
+1 512 471 6449, cmcasey@utexas.edu

Caitlin Casey's research focuses on galaxy formation and evolution, from the earliest times after the Big Bang to the present day. Her primary interest lies in the most massive and luminous galaxies in the Universe, which form stars at rates several hundreds of times higher than our own Milky Way.

Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

Assistant Professor , Department of Astronomy , College of Natural Sciences
, chisholm@austin.utexas.edu

John Chisholm observes how galaxies grow and influence their surroundings over time. In particular, he is interested in the first galaxies in the universe and how they shaped the universe by reionizing the entire cosmos. To do this, he studies the gas and stars of closer galaxies to develop a roadmap to interpret the first galaxies.

Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

Assistant Professor of Instruction , Biology Instruction Office , College of Natural Sciences
+1 512 471 6560, english@austin.utexas.edu

Peter English is an assistant professor of instruction in the Dept. of Integrative Biology. He can speak to how birds respond to a total solar eclipse from his time doing field work as a graduate student in Ecuador when an eclipse caught him (and nearby birds and monkeys) by surprise.

Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

Professor , Department of Astronomy , College of Natural Sciences
+1 512 471 1483, stevenf@astro.as.utexas.edu

Steven Finkelstein directs the Cosmic Frontier Center and is the primary investigator (PI) for the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) CEERS Survey, which provided humanity’s first glimpse into galaxy formation in the first 400 million years of cosmic time. He is also the Co-PI of the NGDEEP survey, JWST’s deepest look into the early universe. He plays key roles in the upcoming European Space Agency (ESA) Euclid telescope, as well as NASA’s next flagship observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

Associate Professor of Instruction , Department of Astronomy , College of Natural Sciences
+1 512 471 3339, keelyf@astro.as.utexas.edu

Keely Finkelstein is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of Astronomy and TIDES, and works with the McDonald Observatory education and outreach team on K-12 teacher and student education programs. Her current research is in the areas of extra-galactic studies of star formation, and galaxy evolution. Her other specialities are in the fields of education and outreach in astronomy.

Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

Department Chair, Astronomy , College of Natural Sciences
+1 512 590 5206, gebhardt@astro.as.utexas.edu

Karl Gebhardt's research focuses on two main areas: black holes and dark energy. His work on black holes has helped build the case that a class of medium-mass black holes exists in between the stellar-mass black holes that result when massive stars explode as supernovae and the supermassive black holes that lie at the hearts of galaxies. Karl is also one of the architects of the $34-million Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment, a McDonald Observatory project seeking to understand dark energy.

Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

Associate Professor , Department of Astronomy , College of Natural Sciences
+1 512 471 1309, keithhawkins@utexas.edu

Keith Hawkins is primarily interested in a field called 'Galactic Archaeology,' which is aimed at exploring the Milky Way Galaxy (its formation, evolution and structure). He uses multi-object spectroscopic surveys to better understand the chemo-dynamic properties of the Milky Way, with expertise is in high- to low-resolution spectroscopy and stellar chemical abundance patterns.

Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

Professor , Department of Astronomy , College of Natural Sciences
, alk@astro.as.utexas.edu

Adam Kraus's research focuses on the formation and evolution of planetary systems, including programs to directly image gas giant planets as they form in orbit around other stars. He also studies the process of star formation, which sets the stage upon which planet formation occurs. His research uses observations from the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, as well as large ground-based telescopes like the twin 10-meter Keck telescopes. He makes extensive use of UT’s McDonald Observatory, especially the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, and will use the future Giant Magellan Telescope that UT and its partners are constructing in South America.

Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

Associate Professor , Department of Astronomy , College of Natural Sciences
+1 512 471 1402, cmorley@utexas.edu

Caroline Morley studies the atmospheres of exoplanets, from terrestrial planets, like the Earth, to giant planets more massive than Jupiter.

Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

Assistant Professor , Department of Astronomy , College of Natural Sciences
, julianmunoz@austin.utexas.edu

Julian Muñoz is a theoretical astrophysicist, working at the interface of cosmology and astronomy. His best-known work is on 21-cm cosmology and dark matter. He uses techniques ranging from pen-and-paper calculations to computer simulations to confront his theories to cosmological observations. In particular, Julian is an expert in the epochs of cosmic dawn and reionization, when the first stars in the universe formed, which he uses to extract new insights on the nature of the dark sector of our universe. His past work also covers the large-scale structure, cosmic microwave background, and fast radio bursts.

Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

+1 512 471 6157, anna.tenerani@austin.utexas.edu

Anna Tenerani's research adopts analytical and numerical tools together with in-situ data analysis to understand the physics of the solar corona and of the solar wind. She is also interested in fundamental problems of nonlinear plasma dynamics, magnetic field reconnection, and in the thermodynamics of non-collisional plasmas.