Astronomy

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.