Join us for the Science Speaker Series, hosted by the Physics, Biology and Chemistry departments on select Tuesdays and Thursdays at Noon in the Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium! This series features captivating talks from guest speakers outside ERAU, faculty experts within ERAU and student presentations (REUs or Capstone projects) in the College of Arts and Sciences.

For suggestions, comments or volunteering opportunities, contact Dr. Pragati Pradhan at pradhanp@erau.edu, Dr. Quentin G. Bailey at baileyq@erau.edu or Dr. Steve Waples at steve.waples@erau.edu.

Stay tuned for updates on this event page, or watch out for emails.

Next Event

Dark Matter Differences Beyond the Milky Way: Mass Modeling the Andromeda Dwarf Galaxies

When: Oct. 30 at Noon
Where: Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium
Speaker: Connor Pickett

Dwarf galaxies within the Local Group cannot typically be held together by their stellar matter alone, leaving them as valuable laboratories for dark matter investigations. Milky Way (MW) satellite galaxies have revealed a distribution of dark matter mass profiles that vary between 'cuspy' and 'cored' profiles, where the former are found in systems with short-duration star formation and the latter in systems with extended star formation, in agreement with simulations. However, recent mass modeling of a handful of Andromeda (M31) dwarfs indicates a deviation from this trend. Notably, the majority of analyzed M31 dwarf spheroidals exhibit cored-like profiles, with densities lower than those observed in their MW counterparts, despite having short-duration star formation. This discrepancy reveals that DM densities established by MW observations may not be universal. In this talk, Connor Pickett will present results from his Ph.D. research and show that the dark matter deviation from the MW is widespread amongst M31’s brightest dwarf spheroidal galaxies. Does Andromeda's more active merger history and tidal interactions significantly influence the properties of its dwarf galaxies, and could investigating these factors lead to an improvement in our understanding of dark matter?

About the Speaker

In 2021, Connor graduated with a B.S. in Astronomy from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, AZ. While there, Ihe researched the massive binary star system, eta Carinae, and tracked Sodium D absorption features within its spectra. Supervised by Noel Richardson, he was able to present my work in a peer-reviewed publication in the Astrophysical Journal. He began his postgraduate career in September 2022 at the University of Surrey in the UK, where he currently studies. His work involves the study of dwarf galaxies orbiting our nearest neighboring galaxy, Andromeda, with the goal of estimating their dark matter densities. He is supervised by Michelle Collins and works closely with Justin Read, the author of the Jeans mass modeling program, GravSphere. Using this program, he is able to investigate the tensions (i.e. "cusp-core", "too-big-to-fail") within our current model of dark matter, where observations disagree with simulations. He has noted that the Andromeda galaxy and the Milky Way have different histories, which has affected their satellite populations, and has published results for two Andromeda dwarfs in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. His second, forthcoming paper will detail a larger portion of the Andromeda dwarf system. His research contributes to a more robust understanding of the Local Group, extending our measurements beyond the Milky Way. His plan to continue this work after completing his Ph.D. and is currently applying for post-doctoral positions this autumn.

Past Events

Student REU During Summing 2025

Date: Sept. 18, 2025
Venue: Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium

Speaker 1: Hailey Widger
Title 1: Representation Learning for Galactic Feature Density Estimation

Speaker 2: Em Biegler
Title 2: Testing Thin Film Nanocharacterization via the New WSU X-ray Beamline


The Quest to Explore the Universe With Gravitational Waves

Date: Sept. 4, 2025
Venue: Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium
Speaker: Dr. Marek Szczepańczyk


Capstone Presentations II

Date: April 24, 2025
Venue: Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium

Speaker 1: Sami Garcia Flores
Title 1: Quantifying Outbursts of the Be Star QR Vul

Speaker 2: Hailey Beier
Title 2: Probing the Multiplicity of Dusty, Carbon-Rich Wolf-Rayet Stars With High-Resolution, Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

Speaker 3: Hailey Murray
Title 3: Physics Beyond General Relativity: Spacetime Symmetry Breaking and Black Holes

Speaker 4: Kya Schluterman
Title 4: Distributional Methods for Detecting Gravitational Waves From Core-Collapse Supernovae

Speaker 5: Brandon Pillon
Title 5: Mock Setup of Newtonian Calibration Characterization for Laser Interferometry

Speaker 6: Jacob Anna
Title 6: Correcting the Background Sources Found in the LIGO Interferometer and Data Quality Testing

Speaker 7: Jerome Busquin
Title 7: Ground-Based Contrail Observation

Speaker 8: Quintin B. Weinberger
Title 8: Reaction-Diffusion Systems on Cubic Superlattices

Speaker 9: Charles D. Wszalek
Title 9: Explicit Symmetry-Breaking of D_n-Equivariant Systems

Speaker 10: Isaiah Joy
Title 10: A Quantum Factoring Algorithm


Capstone Presentations I

Date: April 10, 2025
Venue: Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium

Speaker 1: Taylor Brown and Shannon Moore
Title 1: Analyzing the Variability and Orbit of the Massive Binary Eta Carinae

Speaker 2: Jasmine Downing
Title 2: A Spectroscopic Orbit for WR70

Speaker 3: Micaela Henson
Title 3: Imaging the Dusty Environments Around Galactic WC Binaries With JWST

Speaker 4: Katie Casciotti
Title 4: X-ray Insights Into Colliding Wind Binaries: A Comparative Study of WR 25, Gamma2 Vel and Related Systems

Speaker 5: Ryan Totman
Title 5: Voyager Detections of Plasma Oscillation Events Can Be Associated With Neutron Star Production of Gravitational Waves

Speaker 6: Thomas Zanin
Title 6: Quantum Discord of Graviton Detection

Speaker 7: Logan Caudle
Title 7: Energy Calibration in the CCM Detector Using Michel Electrons From Stopping Cosmic Ray Muons

Speaker 8: Jaxson G. Mitchell
Title 8: Coherent States and Coupled Supersymmetry


Finding Space-Time Scars

Date: March 27, 2025
Venue: Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium
Speaker: Michele Zanolin


Research Talks by Physics Faculties II

Date: March 11, 2025
Venue: Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium

Talk 1: Searches for Spacetime Symmetry Breaking
Speaker: Quentin G. Bailey

Talk 2: From Setting National UV Standards to Improving LIGO Sensitivity: Measurement Science and Today’s Cutting-Edge Research
Speaker: Dr. Ellie Gretarsson

Talk 3: How to Hunt Gravitons for Beginners
Speaker: Preston Jones

Talk 4: TBD
Speaker: Dr. Brian Rachford

Talk 5: The Stories Massive Binaries Tell Us About Their Interacting Past
Speaker: Dr. Noel Richardson


Stellar Abundances in the Milky Way (and Beyond) and Their Implications for Nucleosynthesis

Date: Feb. 20, 2025
Venue: Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium
Speaker: Dr. Emily Griffith


NOIRLab: Behind the Scenes

Date: Feb. 6, 2025 — This event has been cancelled
Venue: Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium
Speaker: André-Nicolas Chené


REUs and Beyond During Summer 2024

Date: Jan. 21, 2025
Venue: Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium

Talk 1: How Does Artificially Induced Particle Precipitation From HAARP Influence STEVE Airglow?
Speaker: Hailey Beier

Talk 2: Testing the Resiliency of XENONnT Background Reduction Techniques
Speaker: Taylor Brown

Talk 3: Detections of Superbubble Breakthroughs and Blowouts
Speaker: Katie Casciotti

Talk 4: Improving the Sensitivity of LIGO Searches to Binary Black Hole Signals With Smarter Detection Algorithms
Speaker: Jaxson Mitchell

Talk 5: Photometric Techniques for Analyzing the Light Behavior of Satellites
Speaker: Shannon Moore

Talk 6: Quantum Channel Masking
Speaker: Hailey Murray

Talk 7: Rapid Search for Higher Modes in GW From Compact-Binary-Coalescence
Speaker: Kya Schluterman


Research Talks by Physics Faculties I

Date: Jan. 30, 2025
Venue: Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium

Talk 1: Pattern Formation and Equivariant Bifurcation
Speaker: Tim Callahan

Talk 2: Opportunities in Dr. Smith’s Research Group
Speaker: Dr. Darrel Smith

Talk 3: Hearing Farther Into the Universe
Speaker: Andri Gretarsson

Talk 4: LIGO Detector Characterization
Speaker: BrennanHughey

Talk 5: Beyond What Human Eyes Can See: The Universe in X-rays
Speaker: Dr. Pragati Pradhan

A Guide to Applying to Graduate School

Date: Sept. 19, 2024
Venue: Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium
Speaker: Janessa Sloane, University of Virginia


Weird Binaries Under Close Surveillance: TU Tau and HD 5501

Date: Oct. 3, 2024
Venue: Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium
Speaker: Dr. Christopher Corbally, Jesuit priest of the British Province, emeritus vice director of the Vatican Observatory and an adjunct astronomer at the University of Arizona


Physics Investigations Using the Sensors in Your Phone

Date: Oct. 30, 2024
Venue: Lower Hangar
Speaker: Dr. David Rakestraw, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory


An ALMA View of the Disks Surrounding the Closest Young Binaries

Date: Nov. 7, 2024
Venue: Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium
Speaker: Dr. Taylor Kutra, Lowell Observatory


Black Holes, Exploding Stars and Clusters of Galaxies: 25 Years With Chandra, NASA's Flagship-Class X-Ray Observatory

Date: Nov. 14, 2024
Venue: Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium
Speaker: Dr. Scott Randall, Senior Astrophysicist and the head of the Chandra Science Operations Team in Mission Planning in the Chandra X-ray Center at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA)