I am the program manager of the Atlanta chapter of Astronomy on Tap. Our monthly series, which we premiered in October 2023, consists of a Georgia State University graduate student, faculty, or research scientist guest speaker, followed by stargazing sessions with an 8-inch Celestron NexStar Go-To Telescope. Each talk is geared for a general audience, and topics have ranged from small stars, the Milky Way galaxy, the expansion rate of the Universe, supermassive black holes, and active astrophysics research conducted at GSU. Click on the image above for more info on this month's event!

The Tully-Fisher relation is a correlation between the rotational velocity of a spiral galaxy and its intrinsic brightness. Using this relation, measurement of the rotation speed allows the true brightness of a galaxy to be estimated.

    The Tully-Fisher relation's main importance to extragalactic astronomy is distance measurement. The relation predicts a spiral galaxy's intrinsic brightness, which when compared to its apparent brightness observed from Earth allows the distance to the galaxy to be measured (in short, comparing how bright something actually is to how bright it appears to be shows how far away it must be).

Fall Semester 2025

During the fall 2025 semester, there will be 3 on-campus observation sessions held on the roof of the Urban Life building. Each session will take place at dusk; times may vary and will be announced ahead of time below. Students should meet outside Urban Life before an observing session is scheduled to begin, and faculty and/or graduate students will escort students to the roof.

Session #1: Wednesday, September 10
Time: 8:30-10:00pm

Session #2: Monday, October 6
Time: Dusk (to be updated closer to date)

Session #3: Tuesday, December 2
Time: Dusk (to be updated closer to date)

An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is an environment created by a supermassive black hole that actively feeds on nearby material. AGN activity generates an enormous amount of energetic feedback back into the galaxy, which is thought to play a major role in galaxy evolution over cosmic time. I measure distances to galaxies that host an AGN such as this, and also use the behavior of these environments to measure black hole masses

I am the faculty lead for the Georgia Outreach Team for Space (GOT Space). Our team consists of undergraduate and graduate ambassadors from Georgia State University, Georgia Tech, and Kennesaw State University. Since the founding in 2018, we have impacted ~10,000 K-12 students in 40 unique schools across 6 Atlanta districts (and still counting!). We proudly continue to be partnered with and funded by the Georgia Space Grant Consortium. Click on the image above for more information or to submit a request to our team!

Location

Urban Life Building (140 Decatur St. SE, Atlanta GA 30303)

The Urban Life building can be found southwest from Langdale Hall and Classroom South, in between the G and M parking decks. Access to the building can be reached from Decatur St SE and/or Gilmer St SE.