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Astroinformatics

Astroinformatics

Astroinformatics applies data science and machine learning to astrophysics and cosmology. IGC members working in astroinformatics are also affiliated with the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences.

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Name Role Affiliations Email Phone Office Centers Research topics
Joseph Colosimo Joseph Colosimo Graduate Student Astronomy jmc1221@psu.edu 1-814-865-0150 413 Davey Laboratory CMA Astroinformatics, Quasars
Amanpreet Kaur Amanpreet Kaur Faculty Astronomy auk971@psu.edu +1 814 863 9341 CMA Astroinformatics, Dynamic Universe
Yuexing Li Yuexing Li Faculty Astronomy yul20@psu.edu +1 814 867 2291 417A Davey Laboratory CMA, CTOC Astroinformatics, Black Holes, Multimessenger Astrophysics
Hyungsuk Tak Hyungsuk Tak Faculty hvt5139@psu.edu +1 814 865 1348 326 Osmond Laboratory CTOC Astroinformatics, Astrostatistics
Charlotte Ward Charlotte Ward Faculty Astronomy cvw5890@psu.edu 2027585625 418 Davey Laboratory IGC Astroinformatics, Black Holes, Multimessenger Astrophysics, Quasars

News about Astroinformatics

Discovery of Massive Early Galaxies Defies Prior Understanding of the Universe
February 23, 2023 priority
Discovery of Massive Early Galaxies Defies Prior Understanding of the Universe
Six massive galaxies discovered in the early universe are upending what scientists previously understood about the origins of galaxies in the universe. “These objects are …
Junyu Zhang selected as Eberly College of Science’s Fall 2022 Student Marshal
December 14, 2022 priority outreach
Junyu Zhang selected as Eberly College of Science’s Fall 2022 Student Marshal
Junyu Zhang of Chongqing, China, will be honored as the student marshal for the Eberly College of Science during Penn State’s fall commencement ceremonies on …
Bright light from early universe 'opens new chapter in astronomy'
November 30, 2022 priority outreach
Bright light from early universe 'opens new chapter in astronomy'
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An unexpectedly rich array of early galaxies that was largely hidden until now has been observed by researchers using data from …
Bright Light from Early Universe 'Opens New Chapter in Astronomy'
November 21, 2022 priority outreach
Bright Light from Early Universe 'Opens New Chapter in Astronomy'
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An unexpectedly rich array of early galaxies that was largely hidden until now has been observed by researchers using data from …
Swift telescope captures brightest gamma-ray burst ever recorded
November 4, 2022 priority outreach
Swift telescope captures brightest gamma-ray burst ever recorded
On October 9, 2022, an unusually bright and long-lasting gamma-ray burst—the most powerful type of explosion in the universe—was detected by the Neil Gehrels Swift …
NASA selects STAR-X for $3M mission concept study
August 30, 2022
NASA selects STAR-X for $3M mission concept study
STAR-X, the Survey and Time-domain Astrophysical Research Explorer, a proposed NASA Medium-Class Explorer (MIDEX) mission that includes Penn State astronomer Niel Brandt, has been selected …
About our wordmark
Monica Rincon Ramirez

The IGC wordmark was created by Monica Rincon Ramirez while she was a graduate student at the Institute. Monica enjoys drawing new connections between fundamental theory and observations. Her graduate work included general relativity, loop quantum gravity, and quantum fields in cosmological backgrounds; her thesis focused on effective quantum corrections to gravitational phenomena from spinfoams and applications to cosmology. She received her PhD in 2024.

The wordmark symbolizes the scope of research at the IGC. The base represents quantum gravity, evoking the quantum geometrical picture from spinfoams and loop quantum gravity — approaches studied at the Center for Fundamental Theory. The middle shows galaxies embedded in a smooth surface characteristic of spacetime in general relativity and the larger physical scales studied at the Center for Theoretical and Observational Cosmology. The top curves to an extreme representing a supermassive black hole accompanied by an energetic jet, with a binary black hole pair nearby — the high-energy phenomena studied at the Center for Multimessenger Astrophysics.