Scialog: TDA Sparks Project that Garners NSF Grant
A year after three astronomers met at a Scialog: Time Domain Astrophysics conference, sponsored by RCSA and the Heising-Simons Foundation, the research project they envisioned won a nearly $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.
“This award would not have happened without Scialog,” said Jason Nordhaus, assistant professor of physics at the Rochester Institute of Technology's National Technical Institute for the Deaf. As the project’s principal investigator, he will be collaborating with Philip Muirhead, assistant professor of astronomy at Boston University, and Maria Drout, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Toronto.
“Bringing diverse expertise together with an opportunity to sit down and brainstorm crazy ideas is rare,” he said. “The Scialog process is unlike anything I’ve experienced.”
The three year project, “Brief But Spectacular: New Windows into the Physics of Common Envelope Evolution,” will study binary star evolution through an observational survey of galactic star clusters using data from the TESS and Gaia space missions, as well as from telescopes in the northern and southern hemispheres. The project will also offer much-needed summer research opportunities for deaf and hard-of-hearing students at RIT.
Nordhaus, a theorist, said he had the idea before the conference but was unsure if the observations required for such a project were feasible. After talking at the 2019 Scialog TDA conference with Muirhead and Drout, who both have observational expertise, the project came together. “They were confident it was possible,” Nordhaus said.
They pitched the idea at the Scialog but RCSA did not choose to fund it.
“That makes sense,” said Nordhaus. “Scialog is looking for high-risk, high-reward ideas the national agencies might not fund. Our idea was more low-risk, high-reward.”
“The goal of Scialog is to catalyze new collaborative teams of early career researchers willing to tackle important scientific problems,” according to RCSA Senior Program Director Richard Wiener. “There are too many good ideas generated at Scialog for RCSA and our cosponsors to fund them all, so we are delighted when another funding agency is able to provide support. Jason, Philip, and Maria have a great project that promises important scientific results as well as terrific opportunities for students.”
The large-scale survey of stellar clusters will be the first of its kind, allowing astrophysicists to link the properties of binaries before and after they merge, in what is known as the common envelope phase. Such a mapping provides observational constraints on a crucial and elusive phase of stellar evolution. Ultimately, it may enable more reliable predictions for the formation rates of white dwarf, neutron star, and black hole binaries in the universe.
The project will also help undergraduate deaf and hard-of-hearing science students get research experience outside of RIT and explore pathways to careers in science.
Two RIT undergraduates will be selected to work with Muirhead and his team each summer at Boston University observing the most promising target systems.
To prepare, Muirhead will be conferring with Nordhaus to identify and remove or reduce the major barriers that deaf and hard-of-hearing people face in a primarily hearing work environment. This will include Muirhead learning some American Sign Language, employing interpreters, and following best-practice guidelines for interactions and use of technology
“Fundamentally the goal of the program is to break down barriers,” said Muirhead. “Ideally, the students will leave the program with a stronger connection to the astrophysics enterprise and be able to visualize pathways to fulfilling careers in astrophysics.”
