BIOGRAPHY

Tuan Do is currently an Assistant Professor at UCLA. He got his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astrophysics at UC Berkeley in 2004 and his PhD at UCLA in 2010. He was a TMT postdoctoral fellow at UC Irvine until 2012, when he joined the Dunlap Institute as a Dunlap Fellow until 2014. He returned to in UCLA 2015 as a Research Scientist and became an Assistant Professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department in 2020.

Maria Drout is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto and a Dunlap Associate. She also holds a Research Associate position at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science. Drout’s research focuses on understanding the evolution, influence, and ultimate fate of massive stars. She uses ground and space-based telescopes to study supernova explosions and other exotic transients, as well as populations of massive stars in nearby galaxies. In 2017, she was a member of the team that was the first ever to identify the visual component of an event that generated gravitational waves detected on Earth. The event was the merger of two neutron stars which resulted in a kilonova. Drout earned a Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Harvard University in 2016, a Masters of Advanced Study in Theoretical Physics from the University of Cambridge in 2011, and a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Iowa in 2010. She was a NASA Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science from 2016-2018.

I am a Galactic astrophysicist, working to understand how the Milky Way formed and evolved, and what our Galaxy’s structure and history can tell us about galactic dynamics and galaxy evolution in general. I work with both high-resolution galaxy simulations and cutting-edge data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, leading a research program focused on simulating and quantifying non-equilibrium galactic dynamics. After completing my Ph.D. at University College London, I worked for the European Space Agency's Gaia data processing and analysis consortium. Following that I accepted a Dunlap Fellowship at the University of Toronto, and then a Flatiron Research Fellowship at the Centre for Computational Astrophysics in New York. In the fall I will join the University of Surrey in a long-term position as a Surrey Future Fellow.

Kartheik Iyer is currently a NHFP Hubble Fellow at Columbia University. Previously, he finished his PhD at Rutgers University working with Prof. Eric Gawiser on developing the Dense Basis method for reconstructing the star-formation histories (SFHs) of distant galaxies and spent 2019-2022 as a Dunlap Fellow at the University of Toronto. As a computational astrophysicist, Kartheik’s research interests lie in measuring the timescales on which physical processes influence how galaxies evolve over time. He builds public tools to infer the physical properties of distant galaxies using noisy spectrophotometric measurements from ground and space-based telescopes, applying them to large surveys using Hubble, JWST (and Roman in the future) to make the most accurate measurements of galaxy SFHs to date. He is a fan of potatoes, 5e, mentoring and outreach, building community-oriented open-source software, and applying machine learning and statistics to otherwise intractable astrophysical problems.

Dr. David Law is an Associate Astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. His research focuses on the evolution of galaxy structure and kinematics from the Local Group to high redshift, with emphasis on optical/IR spectroscopic studies of turbulence and gas outflows in star forming galaxies. Dr. Law is an expert in integral-field spectroscopy and is the lead data scientist for the SDSS-IV MaNGA project which obtained optical integral-field spectroscopy for 10,000 galaxies. At STScI he is a member of the James Webb Space Telescope's Mid-InfraRed Instrument team (MIRI) and leads the technical development of the MIRI integral field spectrograph. Dr. Law received his PhD in astrophysics from the California Institute of Technology in 2009, and spent time as a Hubble Fellow at UCLA and a Dunlap Fellow at the University of Toronto before joining STScI in 2014.

Johanna Nagy is an Assistant Professor in the Physics Department at Case Western Reserve University.  Her research focuses on observational cosmology with an emphasis on measuring the cosmic microwave background (CMB) to understand the evolution and composition of the Universe.  Her research group works on instrumentation and analysis techniques for both balloon-borne and ground-based CMB experiments including SPIDER, Taurus, and CMB-S4.  Prior to joining Case Western, Dr. Nagy was an Assistant Professor at Washington University in St. Louis and a Dunlap Fellow at the University of Toronto.  She earned her undergraduate degree in Physics from Stanford University and her Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University.

Tyler Natoli is a scientist at the University of Chicago where he works with the South Pole Telescope and CMB-S4 collaborations. He is currently investigating the use of mKIDs (millimetre Kinetic Inductance Devices) for line intensity mapping and cosmic microwave background observations. Tyler is an active member of the engineering team for the next large-aperture telescope proposed for the South Pole. The proposed novel telescope design features three monolithic mirrors measuring up to 5.5 meters in diameter and will be capable of full boresight rotation. 

I am a permanent astronomer at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in Orléans, France. During my PhD study, I have discovered over 100 rapidly-spinning neutron stars with the Parkes Radio Telescope in Australia. I then worked on the Canadian CHIME telescope, using it to detect and study “Fast Radio Bursts”, a new astrophysical mystery that involves short bursts of radio waves that have come from far outside our Milky Way galaxy. I am also interested in the search for technosignature (SETI) from other advanced extraterrestrial civilizations in the Universe in order to answer one of the most profound scientific questions we have: "Are we alone?"

Dr. Nguyen is an accomplished professional in the areas of algorithms, optimization, and operations research. He currently leads multiple high-performing teams toward successful algorithm discovery, development and delivery at Kinaxis, a multibillion-dollar industry-leading software corporation that provides supply chain management, and sales and operations planning solutions. Prior to joining his current organization, Dr. Nguyen was a defence scientist in the Cyber Operations and Signals Warfare section at Defence Research and Development Canada for several years. His responsibilities included investigating the performance and scalability of models for cyber defence, evaluating algorithms for courses of action, optimizing cyber defence situational awareness through data visualization and analytics, and developing mathematical models for cyber deception and moving target defence. In academia, Dr. Nguyen has held several postdoctoral research positions in astrophysics, focusing on star formation and exoplanets. He conducted research at the University of Florida, Stockholm University, the University of Rochester, and the University of Toronto, where he was a member of the Dunlap Institute. He is also a member of the Pan-African School for Emerging Astronomers (PASEA, https://paseaafrica.org; formerly known as the West African International Summer School for Young Astronomers, WAISSYA).

Mubdi Rahman is the Founder and Principal of Sidrat Research. Mubdi is an Astronomer with a deep background in research, computing, management, and outreach. Originally hailing from Toronto, Mubdi has served as a Research Associate at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, and an Assistant Research Scientist at the Johns Hopkins University. Mubdi is known for taking a creative approach to scientific and research problems, using techniques from a breadth of fields to find unique solutions. His curiosity has pushed his diverse research background, spanning star formation to cosmology. Outside his research, he has been a leading voice in STEM community outreach, having led initiatives at Youth Science Canada, and Science Rendezvous. Mubdi holds a Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the University of Toronto. Mubdi also serves as a Scientific Editor for the American Astronomical Society Journals.

Dr. Michael Reid is an Associate Professor, Teaching Stream in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto. He specializes in developing astronomy courses that make complex astronomical ideas, from the Big Bang to alien life, accessible to everyone. He’s passionate about sharing the science and wonder of astronomy with all audiences. Dr. Reid received his B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Waterloo and his Ph.D. in Physics with a specialization in Astrophysics from McMaster University. In his research, he has used observations at radio and submillimeter wavelengths to probe the gas and dust in star-forming nebulae within the Milky Way. He’s interested in how the gas and dust in these clouds break apart to form stars of different masses, both large and small. After his Ph.D., he did a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard & Smithsonian Submillimeter Array in Hawaii, then taught Physics and Astronomy at McMaster before moving to the University of Toronto. In 2014, he received the Early Career Teaching Award from the University of Toronto in recognition of his work to transform the teaching of undergraduate astronomy, particularly for students beyond the physical sciences.

Suresh Sivanandam received his PhD in 2010 from the University of Arizona in Astronomy and Optical Sciences. Upon graduation, he took up an independent prize postdoctoral fellowship at the Dunlap Institute for five years. In 2015, Sivanandam was appointed an Assistant Professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics. In 2021, he was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor. Sivanandam is an astrophysicist who develops cutting-edge instruments for large optical/infrared telescopes to solve challenging cosmic problems. His primary scientific research interests revolve around understanding the evolution of galaxies over billions of years of cosmic history as a function of their environment. His areas of instrumentation research expertise include infrared spectroscopy, adaptive optics, and astrophotonics.

Joshua Speagle is an Assistant Professor of Astrostatistics jointly appointed between the Department of Statistical Sciences and the David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Toronto. He is also an Associate Member of the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics as well as a Member of the Data Sciences Institute. Prof. Speagle's research focuses on using a combination of astronomy, statistics, and computer science to understand how galaxies like our own Milky Way form, behave, and evolve over time. This often involves working with massive datasets from wide-field imaging and spectroscopic surveys containing observations ranging from billions of stars and galaxies to interstellar gas and dust. He received his Bachelor's degree with Honors jointly in Astrophysics and Physics, Master's and Doctoral Degrees from Harvard University. Prof. Speagle is also a member of the SDSS-V, DESI, H3, and S5 collaborations and is open to working on short-term or long-term projects.

Dr. Anne-Marie Weijmans completed her Ph.D. in astronomy at Leiden University, the Netherlands, in 2009, and then moved to the Dunlap Institute at the University of Toronto where she was a Dunlap Fellow till 2013. She is currently a reader (associate professor) in astrophysics at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. Her research concentrates on galaxy structure and evolution, and in particular on mapping the dark matter content of nearby galaxies. She is the data release coordinator and data products manager of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys (SDSS), and previously worked as lead-observer on the MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory) survey. She is currently an STFC Leadership in Public Engagement Fellow, and created Shine: a collaboration between science, art and music to explore the properties of light and its use in modern astronomical research.

Jennifer West is currently a Covington Fellow at the Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics Research Centre, National Research Council of Canada. At the Dunlap Institute, Jennifer was a Research Associate who used large radio surveys and radio polarimetry to study magnetic fields in supernova remnants and in the Milky Way Galaxy. She worked with Prof. Bryan Gaensler to analyze data from the upcoming POSSUM (Polarisation Sky Survey of the Universe’s Magnetism) survey using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). Jennifer is also enthusiastic about astronomy education and outreach. She is the recipient of the International Dark Sky Association’s Dark Sky Defender Award (2011) and the RASC’s Ken Chilton Prize (2010) for her contributions to astronomy education and outreach. Jennifer completed her Ph.D. at the University of Manitoba in 2016, working with Dr. Samar Safi-Harb. She joined Dunlap in September 2016.