Since 2022, DiRAC and the UW Astronomy Department have awarded prizes for undergraduate summer research. These prizes are intended to spark exciting new research programs, or push ongoing projects towards completion, and to help students work directly alongside their mentors at UW.
We’re very proud that this program has been made possible through the generous donations of our Seattle community, our faculty, and friends of the department. Your support is helping the next generation of scholars to build the most advanced datasets, algorithms, and tools to explore and understand the Universe!
2025
- Elliott Burdett (Advisor: Nora Shipp) Searching for Stellar Stream Extensions in the DELVE Survey
- Simon Dawson (Advisor: Arianna Long) Characterizing High-z dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) with JWST
2024
- Felix Knowlton (Advisors: Jake Kurlander, Mario Jurić) High-Fidelity HelioLinC Stress-Testing for LSST Preparedness
- Giovanni Gollotti (Advisors: Andy Tzanidakis, Tobin Wainer, James Davenport) A New Candidate Triplet Binary System in the Beta-Pic Moving Group: HIP 23309
- Maggie Vickers (Advisor: Bruce Balick) Examining Density Tracers in Low-Ionization structures in Planetary Nebula
- Sophia Watts (Advisors Yakov Faerman, Matt McQuinn) Investigating intergalactic filaments and sheets
2023
- Katelyn Ebert (Advisor: Prof. Matt McQuinn): Precision Measurement of the Hubble Constant with Fast Radio Bursts
- John Delker (Advisor: Prof. Andy Connolly): Classifying Transients with ParSNIP
- Celeste Hagee (Advisors: Andy Tzanidakis and Prof. James Davenport): Building a Data-Driven Calibration Model for the Gaia BP/RP Epochal Spectra Using Supernovae
- Bowang Lan (Advisors: Jake Kurlander and Prof. Mario Juric): Investigations with HelioLinC
- Benjamin Herrera (Advisor: Prof. Sarah Tuttle): MARVIN Optimization for Generalized IFU Use
2022
- Arif Chu (Advisor: Nima Sedaghat) Exploring Data Preparation and Machine Learning approaches for LSST data
- Ishan Coutinho (Advisors: Trevor Dorn-Wallenstein, Emily Levesque) Photometric Classification of Evolved Massive Stars: High-Resolution Spectroscopic Validation
- Josue Torres (Advisor: James Davenport): Documenting and Testing of PyKOSMOS
This kind of community-driven support is critical for the programs at DiRAC and UW Astronomy. We have one of the largest undergraduate astronomy programs in the nation, and a world-class cohort of graduate students. If you would like to support the work of these amazing young scientists at any level, please consider making a gift!