
Astronomy PhD Students


Alice Cai
PhD Student
Office location: 1800 Sherman #7433
AliceCai2029@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Fong Group




Vic (Yuxin) Dong
PhD Student
Office location: 1800 Sherman #8037D
yuxin.dong@northwestern.edu
Group: Fong Group
Research Statement: Multiwavelength follow-up observations of Fast Radio Bursts to uncover the origin of their progenitor system(s)

Rodrigo Ferrer-Chavez
PhD Student
Office location: 1800 Sherman #7429
rodrigoferrer-chavez2029@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Wang Group
Research Statement: Exoplanet imaging in the JWST era



Elena González Prieto
PhD Student
Office location: 1800 Sherman #8038C
elena.prieto@northwestern.edu
Group: Rasio Group
Research Statement: Dynamical evolution of dense stellar environments and the formation of compact objects

Alexa Gordon
PhD Student
Office location: 1800 Sherman #8032B
AlexaGordon2026@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Fong Group
Research Statement: Spectral energy distribution modeling of fast radio burst (FRB) host galaxies to constrain FRB progenitor models


Saarah Hall
PhD Student
GEM Associate Fellow 2022-2023
Office location: 1800 Sherman #8073
saarahhall2027@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Miller Group
Research Statement: I study time-domain astronomy with wide-field surveys like the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). I'm interested in utilizing ZTF data to evaluate the volumetric rate of rare transients.

Beryl Hovis-Afflerbach
PhD Student
Office location: 1800 Sherman #8033
beryl@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Strom Group
Research Statement: Massive star evolution and populations in galaxies across cosmic time.



Emma Kaufman
PhD Student
Office location: 1800 Sherman #8030A
EmmaKaufman2026@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Lecoanet Group
Research Statement: Simulations of magnetic waves in stellar interiors

Ilia Kiato
PhD Student
Office location: 1800 Sherman, 7429
ilia.qato@northwestern.edu
Group: Kalogera Group

Nathalie Korhonen Cuestas
PhD Student
Office location: 1800 Sherman #8048D
nathaliekorhonencuestas2029@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Strom Group
Research Statement: Characterising the relationships between galactic mass, metallicity, and star formation rate at cosmic noon to better understand the chemical evolution of the universe.



Camille Liotine
PhD Student
Office location: 1800 Sherman #8038F
cliotine@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Kalogera Group
Research Statement: The evolution of binary star systems, in particular the populations of stellar binaries that result in double compact object mergers that are detectable with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)

Chang Liu
PhD Student
Miller Group
Office location: 1800 Sherman #8034C
ChangLiu2025@u.northwestern.edu
Research Statement: Probing the progenitor properties of supernovae with multi-band observations

Miguel Martinez
PhD Student
Office location: 1800 Sherman #8036A
miguel.martinez@northwestern.edu
Group: Rasio Group
Research Statement: Dynamics across a wide range of astrophysical regimes, from exoplanets and exomoons to massive star clusters



Teresita Ramirez Aguilar
PhD Student
Office location: 1800 Sherman #8038E
TeresitaRamirezAguilar2028@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Tchekovskoy Group

Nabeel Rehemtulla
PhD Student
Office location: 1800 Sherman #8038B
NabeelRehemtulla2027@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Miller Group
Research Statement: Building machine learning models to learn about and classify sources detected by the Zwicky Transient Facility

Jonathan Roberts
PhD Student
Office location: 1800 Sherman #8044B
JonathanRoberts2027@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Larson Group


Kierstin Sorensen
PhD Student
Office location: 1800 Sherman, 7417
KierstinSorensen2024@u.northwestern.edu

Jacob Sprague
PhD Student
Office location: 1800 Sherman #8034A
JacobSprague2021@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Larson Group
Research Statement: Novel GW sources in conjunction with the levitated-sensor GW detector


Elizabeth Teng
PhD Student
Office location: 1800 Sherman #7421
ElizabethTeng2025@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Kalogera Group
Research Statement: Using machine learning to accelerate simulations of binary star and compact object populations

Asad Ukani
PhD Student
Office location: 1800 Sherman, #7431
asadukani2028@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Murchikova Group

Caroline von Raesfeld
PhD Student
Strom Group
Office location: 1800 Sherman #8043
carolinevonraesfeld2027@u.northwestern.edu

Hailin Wang
PhD Student
Office location: 1800 Sherman #8046C
hwr5641@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Novak Group
