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Astronomy PhD Students

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Vic (Yuxin) Dong

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)

Elena González Prieto

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

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

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

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.

Danat Issa

Danat Issa

PhD Student

Office location: 1800 Sherman #8033
danatissa2023@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Tchekovskoy Group
Research Statement: Simulations of neutron star mergers and their electromagnetic counterparts

Emma Kaufman

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

Fulya Kiroglu

Fulya Kiroglu

PhD Student

Office location: 1800 Sherman #8031
FulyaKiroglu2024@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Rasio Group
Research Statement: Dynamics and evolution of black holes through close encounters in dense star clusters.

Nathalie Korhonen Cuestas

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

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

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

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

Nick Omahen

Nick Omahen

PhD Student

Office location: 1800 Sherman #8027
NicholasOmahen2024@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Tchekovskoy Group
Research Statement: I study the assembly and evolution of accretion disks and their outflows in a wide variety of black hole feeding scenarios

Jillian Rastinejad

Jillian Rastinejad

PhD Student

Office location: 1800 Sherman #8027
JillianRastinejad2024@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Fong Group
Research Statement: Observation of the astronomical explosions created by merging neutron stars, kilonovae, from both the short gamma-ray burst and gravitational wave perspective

Nabeel Rehemtulla

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

Kyle Akira Rocha

Kyle Akira Rocha

PhD Student

Office location: 1800 Sherman #8035
karocha@u.northwestern.edu
Group: Kalogera Group
Research Statement: Machine learning and the evolution of binary stars and compact objects

Jacob Sprague

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

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