From CASS

Previous Graduate Students

Our graduate students have done very well and are represented on the faculties and staffs of major research universities and laboratories doing cutting edge research in astronomy & astrophysics

This is an incomplete list that we are updating. If you have graduated from CASS and would like to be included, please contact Dana Johnson.

Cherry, John (JJ)

Graduation Year: 2012

Thesis: Neutrino Flavor Transformation in Core-Collapse Supernovae

Advisor: Fuller, George

Current Position: Postdoc, LANL/University of New Mexico

Suchy, Slawo

Graduation Year: 2012

Advisor: Rick Rothschild

Current Position: Postdoc, Nuremburg, Germany

Bierman, Evan

Graduation Year: 2011

Current Position: Sempra Solar Alternative Energy

Miller, Nathan

Graduation Year: 2011

Thesis: Illuminating the Background: Topics in Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Research

Advisor: Brian Keating

Current Position: Postdoc, LANL

Rafelski, Marc

Graduation Year: 2011

Advisor: Art Wolfe

Current Position: Postdoc, Caltech

Whitmore, Jonathan

Graduation Year: 2011

Advisor: Art Wolfe

Current Position: Postdoc, Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia

Michelsen, Eric

Graduation Year: 2010

Current Position: teaching /research UCSD

Skory, Stephen

Graduation Year: 2010

Current Position: Postdoc, CU Boulder

Collins, David

Graduation Year: 2010

Advisor: Michael Norman

Current Position: Postdoc, LANL

McDevitt, Chris

Graduation Year: 2010

Advisor: Pat Diamond

Current Position: Postdoc, LANL

Xu, Hao

Graduation Year: 2009

Advisor: Michael Norman

(Smith) Sutterly, Christel

Graduation Year: 2009

Advisor: George Fuller

Current Position: (nuclear/particle astro), Postdoc, Arizona State University

Kishimoto, Chad

Graduation Year: 2009

Advisor: George Fuller

Current Position: (nuclear/particle astro), Postdoc, UCLA

Jorgenson, Regina

Graduation Year: 2008

Advisor: Art Wolfe

Current Position: Postdoc, Cambridge University, NSF PD Hawaii

Xu, Hao

Graduation Year: 2008

Current Position: LANL

Keating, Shane

Graduation Year: 2008

Current Position: (Pat Diamond's former grad student)

Wang, Zhan-hui

Current Position: (Pat Diamond's former grad student)

Chan, Stanley

Current Position: (Pat Diamond's former grad student)

Amanik, Phil

Graduation Year: 2007

Current Position: Arete Corp

Thomas, Christian

Graduation Year: 2006

Current Position: Associate Professor, Belmont U., Tenn.

Jena, Tridivesh

Graduation Year: 2005

Current Position: Zemetis Corp

Suzuki, Nao

Graduation Year: 2005

Current Position: Research Position, LBNL

Siana, Brian

Graduation Year: 2005

Advisor: Harding (Gene) Smith

Current Position: Assistant Professor, UC Riverside

Cooke, Jeff

Graduation Year: 2005

Current Position: Postdoc, Caltech

Postdoc, Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia

Gurcan, Ozgur

Graduation Year: 2003

Current Position: Permanent CNRS position, Ecole Polytechnique

O’Meara, John

Graduation Year: 2003

Current Position: Assistant Professor, Saint Michaels College, VT

Schirato, Richard

Graduation Year: 2002

Current Position: LANL Scientific Staff

Holland, Chris

Graduation Year: 2002

Current Position: Permanent staff, General Atomics

Pruet, Jason

Graduation Year: 2001

Current Position: DOE Office of Science

Fleischer, Jason

Graduation Year: 2001

Current Position: Tenured Assoc Prof, EE Princeton University

Dalal, N.

Graduation Year: 2002

Current Position: Staff Member, CITA

Asst. Professor, U. Illinois

Abazajian, Kev

Graduation Year: 2001

Thesis: Neutrino Cosmology and Astrophysics

Current Position: Asst. Professor, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, UC Irvine

Coburn, Wayne

Graduation Year: 2001

Thesis: A study of magnetic fields of accreting x-ray pulsars with the Rossi x-ray timing explorer

Current Position: Sr. Software Engineering, Alexa Internet

Asst. Researcher, UC Berkeley

Safizadeh, Neda

Graduation Year: 2001

Thesis: Detection of Extrasolar Planets via Microlensing and Occultation

Current Position: Postgraduate Fellow, UCSD-CASS

Marsden, David

Graduation Year: 1999

Thesis: X-Ray Observations of Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters

Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, UCSD/SIO

Prochaska, Jason X.

Graduation Year: 1998

Thesis: The Physical Properties of Damped Ly-Alpha Systems: A Keck HIRES Investigation

Current Position: Professor, UC Santa Cruz

Burles, Scott

Graduation Year: 1997

Thesis: Measurement of the D/H Ratio in QSO Absorption Systems

Current Position: Associate Prof., MIT

Cardall, Christian Y.

Graduation Year: 1997

Thesis: Limits on Neutrino Mixing Parameters from Nucleosynthesis in the Big Bang and Supernovae

Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, State Univ. of New York, Stonybrook

Sarmecanic, James

Graduation Year: 1997

Thesis: Physical and Chemical Properties of Cometary Dust Derived from Modeling of Mid-infrared Imaging Observations

Current Position: Industry

Ford, Lyle

Graduation Year: 1996

Thesis: Spectral Properties of Gamma Ray Bursts Observed by BATSE

Current Position: Asst. Professor Univ. Wisconsin (Eau Claire)

McLaughlin, Gail

Graduation Year: 1996

Thesis: Physics of Massive stars and Supernovae: Weak Interactions and Stability Analysis

Current Position: Associate. Professor, N. Carolina State Univ., Raleigh

Brittnacher, Mitchell

Graduation Year: 1995

Thesis: A Linear Analysis of Tearing Instability in Magnetotail Equilibria

Current Position: Research Scientist, Univ. Washington

Oren, Abraham L.

Graduation Year: 1995

Thesis: Faraday Rotation in Quasar Absorption Systems

Current Position: Industry

Piña, Robert L.

Graduation Year: 1994

Thesis: An Array Camera for Mid-infrared Astronomical Imaging with Application to Extragalactic Astronomy and New Methods in Bayesian Image Reconstruction

Current Position: Asst. Professor Univ. Florida, Gainsville

Fisher, Brendan

Graduation Year: 1994

Thesis: High Time-resolution Infrared Imaging of Jupiter

Current Position: Staff Member, JPL/CalTech

Moore, David

Graduation Year: 1994

Thesis: Narrow-line Regon Kinematics in Seyfert Nuclei

Current Position: Industry

Wang, Virginia

Graduation Year: 1994

Thesis: Gamma-ray Burst Repetition: Biases, Evidence & Implications

Current Position: Asst. Professor, Claremont Colleges

Bowman, H. Brian

Graduation Year: 1994

Thesis: A Study of Galactic Structure in X-Rays and Gamma-Rays

Current Position: V. Asst. Professor, Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech.

Jedamzik, Karsten

Graduation Year: 1993

Thesis: The Small-Scale Structure of the Early Universe

Current Position: Research Scientist, Max Planck Institut fuer Astrophysik (Garching)

Professor, Physics, University of Montpelier, France

Barlow, Tom

Graduation Year: 1993

Thesis: Variability of Broad Absorption-Line QSOs

Current Position: Research Scientist, IPAC/Caltech

Qian, Yong-Zhong

Graduation Year: 1993

Thesis: Flavor-Mixing Effects of Cosmologically Significant Neutrinos on Supernova Dynamics and Nucleosynthesis

Current Position: Prof. Physics, Univ., Minnesota

Zhang, Dennis

Graduation Year: 1993

Thesis: A Test of Cosmic Ray Interplanetary Transport Theory

Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Inst. for Geophysics & Planetary Physics, UCLA

Womble, Donna S.

Graduation Year: 1992

Thesis: The Extent and Content of Low-Ionization Gas in Galaxies

Current Position: Monterey Instit. for Research in Astronomy

Briggs, Michael S.

Graduation Year: 1991

Thesis: Observations of Galactic Positron Annihilation Radiation

Current Position: Research Physicist, NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center

Chan, Kai-Wing

Graduation Year: 1990

Thesis: Nucleosynthetic Gamma-ray Lines and Positrons from Supernovae

Current Position: Research Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Metcalf, Thomas R.

Graduation Year: 1990

Thesis: Flare Heating and Ionization of the Low Solar Chromosphere

Current Position: Physicist, Solar Astrophysics Laboratory, Lockheed-Martin

Jung, Young-Dae

Graduation Year: 1990

Thesis: Photoionization of Many-Electron Atoms

Current Position: Assoc. Professor, Hanyang Univ.

Soong, Yang

Graduation Year: 1988

Thesis: A Study of the Temporal Spectral Behavior of Hercules X-1: A Binary X-ray Pulsar

Current Position: Research Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Hua, Xin-Min

Graduation Year: 1986

Thesis: Neutron and 2.223 MeV Gamma-ray Line Emission from Solar Flares

Current Position: Research Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Zheng, Wei

Graduation Year: 1986

Thesis: Time Variations of Emission Lines in Quasi-stellar Objects

Current Position: Research Physicist, Johns Hopkins Univ.

Rodriguez-Espinosa, Jose

Graduation Year: 1985

Thesis: Infrared Studies of Seyfert Galaxies and the Irregular Galaxy M82

Current Position: Sr. Scientist, Inst. Astrofisica Canarias

Dermer, Charles D.

Graduation Year: 1984

Thesis: Physics of Nonmagnetic Relativistic Thermal Plasmas

Current Position: Research Astrophysicist, Naval Research Lab

Fisher, George H.

Graduation Year: 1984

Thesis: Radiative Hydrodynamics of Flare Loops Heated by Impulsive Bursts of Energetic Electrons

Current Position: Research Physicist, Space Sciences Lab, UC Berkeley

Gunkler, Todd A.

Graduation Year: 1983

Thesis: Observations and Analysis of Solar Flares Using Ha Spectral Profiles

Current Position: Professor, Delta College

LeVan, Paul

Graduation Year: 1983

Thesis: Near Infrared Spectrophotometry of Seyfert Galaxies and planetary Nebulae in Helium 10830

Current Position: Staff Scientist, AF Geophysics Research Lab

Nolan, Patrick

Graduation Year: 1982

Thesis: Hard X-ray Emission from Galactic Black Hole Candidates

Current Position: Senior Research Scientist, Stanford Univ.

Knight, Frederick K.

Graduation Year: 1981

Thesis: X-ray and Gamma-ray Observations of Pulsed Emission from Radio Pulsars

Current Position: Research Scientist, Lincoln Laboratory, MIT

Brin, David

Graduation Year: 1980

Thesis: Evolution of Cometary Nuclei as Influenced by a Dust Component

Current Position: Hugo & Nebula Award-Winning Author

Junkkarinen, Vesa

Graduation Year: 1980

Thesis: Board Absorption-Line QSOs

Current Position: Research Physicist (retired), UCSD

Puetter, Richard J.

Graduation Year: 1980

Thesis: Observations and Interpretation of the Emission-Line Spectra of Quasi-stellar Objects

Current Position: Research Physicist, UCSD

Russell, Ray W.

Graduation Year: 1978

Thesis: An Analysis of Infrared Spectra of Gaseous Nebulae with an Emphasis on NGC 7027

Current Position: Research Astronomer, Aerospace Corporation

Paciesas, William

Graduation Year: 1978

Thesis: Hard X-ray Variability in Binary X-ray Sources

Current Position: Research Prof., Univ. Alabama, Huntsville

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

Rephaeli, Yoel

Graduation Year: 1977

Thesis: X-Ray Emission from Clusters of Galaxies

Current Position: Prof., Tel Aviv Univ.

Adj. Professor, UCSD

Harms, Richard J.

Graduation Year: 1976

Thesis: Digicon Spectrophotometry of the Lambda Orion HII Region

Current Position: President, RJH Scientific

PI, HST Faint Object Spectograph

Mushotzky, Richard J.

Graduation Year: 1976

Thesis: Observations of Hard X-rays from Extragalactic Objects

Current Position: Senior Astrophysicist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Cordes, James

Graduation Year: 1975

Thesis: Pulsar Microstructure: Time Scales, Spectra, Polarization, and Radiation Models

Current Position: Prof. Astronomy, Cornell Univ.

Wheaton, William

Graduation Year: 1975

Thesis: Observation of the Galactic Hard X-ray Background from OSO-7

Current Position: Staff Scientist, IPAC/Caltech

Forrest, William

Graduation Year: 1974

Thesis: Circumstellar Grains and the Intrinsic Polarization of Starlight

Current Position: Prof. Astronomy, Univ. Rochester

Director, CEK Mees Observatory

Nordsieck, Kenneth H.

Graduation Year: 1972

Thesis: A Dust-Radiation Instability in Ionized Nebulae, the Angular Momentum of Spiral Galaxies, and a Search for Circular Polarization in Extragalactic Objects

Current Position: Prof. Astronomy, Univ. Wisconsin

Blumenthal, George R.

Graduation Year: 1971

Thesis: Astrophysical Applications of High-Energy Electromagnetic Phenomena

Current Position: Prof. Astronomy & Astrophysics, UC Santa Cruz

Cox, Donald P.

Graduation Year: 1970

Thesis: Calculations of Cooling Rates and Spectral Emission of Gaseous Nebulae

Current Position: Prof. Physics, Univ. Wisconsin

Benford, Gregory

Graduation Year: 1967

Thesis: Nuclear Magnetic Relaxation in High Magnetic Fields by Plasma Modes and Impurity States

Current Position: Prof. Physics, UC Irvine

Award-Winning Science Fiction Author