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Chair of the Department: Richard M. Crutcher
103 Astronomy Building
1002 West Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801
(217) 333-3090
E-mail: astronomy@uiuc.edu
Graduate Degree Programs
The Department of Astronomy offers graduate programs leading to the
master’s of science and doctor of philosophy degrees. The goal
of the graduate program in astronomy is to provide broadly based training
in modern astrophysics and astronomy for a small and carefully selected
student body. Individually designed programs involving close contact
with faculty members are encouraged, and an understanding of fundamental
principles and techniques and their applications to research problems
of current interest is emphasized. Students are expected to acquire
a solid knowledge of modem physics as well as of general astronomy.
A major objective is to maintain an exciting intellectual environment
in which students can develop their scientific creativity and their
enthusiasm for astronomy.
Admission
Admission decisions are made once a year in the spring. Applications
for admission and financial assistance must be received by February
15. Normal entrance requirements are a bachelor’s degree in
astronomy, physics, physical chemistry, or mathematics, and a one-year
course in descriptive astronomy. A minimum grade point average of
3.0 (A = 4.0) and satisfactory scores on the Graduate Record Examination
(GRE) (verbal, quantitative, and advanced physics portions) are required
for admission. Financial assistance is usually provided to graduate
students.
Graduate Teaching Experience
Although teaching is not a general Graduate College requirement, experience
in teaching is considered an important part of the graduate experience
in this program.
Master of Science
For the M.S. degree, 32 graduate hours of study in graduate courses
are required. There are no thesis or foreign language requirements.
The 32 graduate hours of coursework may not include any research units
(such as 590, 597, 599) except 4 graduate hours of 590. At least 16
graduate hours must be in astronomy 500-level courses, two of which
must be ASTR 502—Theoretical Astrophysics, and ASTR 503—Observational
Astronomy. The remaining 16 graduate hours must be selected from approved
courses in astronomy, physics, or mathematics, with at least four
of these 12 graduate ours in a 500-level course.
Doctor of Philosophy
The Ph.D. degree requires completion of 96 graduate hours in courses
in astronomy and related fields (at least 32 of which involve individual
study and research), satisfactory performance on a general qualifying
examination no later than the beginning of the third year of study,
and completion of an original research project culminating in a thesis
publishable in whole or in part. Further information on exact degree
requirements may be obtained from the department.
Faculty Research Interests
Research activity includes astrophysical fluid dynamics; magnetohydrodynamics
and radiation hydrodynamics; and observational and theoretical investigations
of a wide array of astronomical objects: comets (chemistry), stars
(formation, structure and evolution, atmospheres, nucleosynthesis,
novae, supemovae, pulsars, and stellar statistics), the interstellar
medium (planetary nebulae, molecular clouds, magnetic fields, supemova
remnants, and galactic structure), extragalactic systems (galaxy structure
and evolution, interacting galaxies, active galaxies, jets, and quasars),
and large-scale structure of the universe.
Astrophysics is also a strong research interest of several faculty
members in the Department of Physics. Current activity there centers
on the physics of dense stellar matter, accretion phenomena, and high
energy and relativistic astrophysics, with broad interests in the
application of modem physics to astronomy. Students in astronomy may
select thesis supervisors from faculty members in the Department of
Physics as well as in the Department of Astronomy.
Research Facilities
The department is a partner in a millimeter-wavelength radio telescope
array, located at Hat Creek in Northern California and operated jointly
with the University of California at Berkeley and the University of
Maryland. A 1-m reflecting telescope equipped with optical and infrared
CCDS, located on Mt. Laguna in Southern California, is operated jointly
with San Diego State University, which also operates 0.4-m and 0.6-m
telescopes occasionally used by University of Illinois faculty and
students. Transportation costs are normally provided. Optical and
radio astronomers may also obtain observing time at national observatories
at Kitt Peak, Cerro Tololo, Green Bank, and Socorro. Computational
facilities include a departmental local area network (LAN) of Sun
SPARC workstations and fileservers, with interactive image processing
capability. This LAN also provides access to campus mainframes, including
IBM J40 and IBM SP computers, and to the National Center for Supercomputing
Applications (NCSA) on campus. NCSA operates Silicon Graphics Origin
2000 and HP/Convex parallel processor supercomputers, with advanced
virtual reality visualization systems. They are used for both production
data processing (radio synthesis imaging) and theoretical modeling.
Financial Aid
University fellowships are available and may be combined with part-time
teaching assistantships. Most resident students are supported for
their first two or three years by half-time teaching assistantships.
The typical teaching assistant takes three graduate courses per semester
and spends twenty hours per week handling quiz sections in elementary
astronomy courses. Teaching assistantships are responsible positions,
and the concomitant duties are considered to be a valuable part of
the student’s educational experience. Advanced students may
compete for research assistantships offered by faculty members whose
research is partially supported by federal grants.
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