Rebecca Koopmann ’89, professor of physics and astronomy, Katelyn O'Brien ’11 and Ana Paolo Mikler ’12 traveled to Arecibo Observatory over the summer to carry out a six-night observ
Rebecca Koopmann ’89, professor of physics and astronomy, Katelyn O'Brien ’11 and Ana Paolo Mikler ’12 traveled to Arecibo Observatory over the summer to carry out a six-night observing run to record radio emission from hydrogen gas in galaxies located up to 750 million light-years away. The observatory, part of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, hosts the world’s largest and most sensitive telescope reflector, spanning more than 1,000 feet in diameter. The Union team’s work is part of the ongoing ALFALFA (Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA, where ALFA is the name of the detector used in the observations) survey, a seven-year project headed by Riccardo Giovanelli of Cornell University. Koopmann and colleagues at Colgate and Georgia Southern received a five-year NSF grant to facilitate student involvement in the project. During the recent observing run, Koopmann trained Mikler, O’Brien and six other team faculty and student observers from Hartwick College and St. Mary's College of California in observing and data reduction techniques. The observing run was the culmination of Mikler’s and O'Brien’s summer research projects involving the study of gas and star formation properties of a dense group of galaxies. O'Brien is continuing this work as her senior thesis.
Anastasia Pease, vsiting assistant professor of English, will deliver a presentation titled “Teaching Bioethics in Literature Courses” at the conference of the Society for Ethics Across the Curriculum, hosted by Union on Oct. 7-9.
Brian Hauser, assistant professor of film studies, won the 2010 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival Screenwriting Competition for his feature-length screenplay, “Cult Flick.” Hauser’s short screenplay, “The Curfew,” has also garnered attention at multiple festivals this year, including 2011 Slamdance (semi-finalist), 2010 Creative World Awards (honorable mention/second place), 2010 SoCal Film Festival (semi-finalist) and the 2010 Golden Brad Awards (top 75 shorts).