Embedded Files
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Name: Aavik Wadivkar
Title: Cosmic First Responders: Hunting Gamma Ray Bursts From Antarctica with WashU Satellite
Abstract:
Gamma-ray bursts are brief flashes of high-energy radiation from collapsing stars or merging neutron stars, briefly outshining entire galaxies before they fade. In 2027, NASA's ADAPT mission will fly over Antarctica on a high-altitude balloon to detect these bursts in real time. ADAPT can localize them quickly, but not precisely enough to fully study the optical afterglow — that's where AIRIS comes in.
AIRIS is a fast-slewing optical telescope built by WashU Satellite, an undergraduate-led engineering team at Washington University in St. Louis that develops space-ready science missions. Mounted on the same balloon platform as ADAPT, AIRIS immediately rotates to image the fading afterglow from near-space, where it can detect faint light quickly and with low noise. The data feed into NASA's alert network so other observatories can follow up.
By precisely localizing GRBs and characterizing their light curve morphology over time, AIRIS will help constrain the energetics, environments, and progenitor mechanisms behind these extraordinary events.
Biography:
Aavik Wadivkar is an undergraduate student at Washington University in St. Louis studying Astrophysics and Philosophy. His research focuses on detecting exoplanets orbiting white dwarf stars with TESS, and he contributes to Astromusers research group led by Dr. Tansu Daylan. He has presented work at the Mid-American Regional Astrophysics Conference and the American Astronomical Society conference.
Aavik serves as President of WashU Satellite, a 50+ person undergraduate engineering team that designs and builds space-ready science missions. He is presenting today on AIRIS (the ADAPT Incidence Resolution & Imaging Subsystem), a piggyback optical telescope flying on NASA's high-altitude balloon mission ADAPT to detect and localize gamma-ray bursts.
Outside of astrophysics, Aavik serves as Co-President of WashU's Philosophy Club and as an Editor at the WashU Review of Philosophy, where he explores the ways we understand the world around us. In his free time, he plays jazz piano and performs with the Kids On Campus sketch comedy group.
Steven Bellavia - Vera Rubin Telescope cameras
Title: The Vera Rubin Observatory
Abstract:
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which uses the largest and most sophisticated astronomy camera ever built, will conduct a 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) to answer some of the most pressing questions about the structure and evolution of the universe and the objects in it. This talk will discuss the design, construction and use of the world's largest digital camera, the heart of the Vera Rubin
Telescope (formerly called the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope), and present the recently acquired engineering data during First Light/First Look.
The Rubin will rapidly scan the sky, using its 8.4 meter aperture optical telescope and 3.2 Gigapixel camera, designed to survey the visible sky every week down to a much fainter level than that reached by existing surveys. It will catalog 90 percent of the near-Earth objects larger than 300 meters and assess the threat they pose to life on Earth. It will find some 10,000 primitive objects in the Kuiper Belt, which contains a fossil record of the formation of the solar system. It will also contribute to the study of the structure of the universe by observing thousands of supernovae, both nearby and at large redshift. It will measure the distribution of dark matter through gravitational lensing. The images
from LSST will be used to examine billions of remote galaxies, providing multiple probes of the mysterious dark matter and dark energy.
Biography:
Steven Bellavia is an amateur astronomer and telescope maker. He is an aerospace engineer who worked for Grumman Aerospace with the Thermodynamics Group of the Space Division. He had a key role in developing a nuclear rocket engine, and performed the analysis, design and fabrication of the micro-gravity liquid droplet radiator that flew
on SpaceShuttle mission STS-029.
Steve has been at Brookhaven National Laboratory since 1992 and was the principal mechanical engineer for the camera on the Vera Rubin (formerly called the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, LSST). Prior to that, he was doing research and engineering for the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory.
Steve has been recognized for the discovery of the Clair Obscure effect,
which is described in the December 2018 issue of Astronomy magazine.
Steve is an assistant adjunct professor of astronomy and physics at Suffolk County Community College and the Astronomy Education and Outreach Coordinator at the Custer Institute and Observatory in Southold, New York.
Mr. Lowell Grissom speaker information
Title: The Gus Grissom Story
Abstract: Mr. Lowell Grissom is the brother to NASA Astronaut Gus Grissom. The Gus Grissom Story discusses Gus’s life and experiences in the Space program. Gus was one of the original Mercury Seven selected by NASA for Project Mercury, and went on to be a Gemini and Apollo astronaut. He was the second American to fly in space in 1961, and the first American to fly in space twice. Gus served in World War II and
the Korean War. Trajectly he died as commander of Apollo 1 along with astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee on Jannuary 27, 1967, during a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission at Cape Kennedy, Florida.
Biography: Mr. Lowell Grissom is the brother of Astronaut Virgil “Gus” Grissom. He graduated from Indiana University and was employed by McDonnell Douglas Automation Company as Director of Sales and Marketing. He was President of Professional Event Planners, and was elected as a member of the U.S. Registry’s Who’s Who of leading American executives. He is a past member of the Board of Directors for The Astronaut Memorial Foundation, The Apollo One Memorial
Foundation, The Challenger Centers and The Space Museum and Grissom Center. He currently serves as an Advisor to those organizations.
Lowell has spoken nationally about his famous brother and the space program. He has appeared in several space documentaries, including When We Left Earth-the NASA missions, Liberty Bell 7-the Lost Spacecraft, Boilermakers-Gus Grissom, and the just
released, Apollo One.
Dr. Erika Gibb speaker information
Title: Comets as Fossils: Why Comets are Important for Understanding our Origins
Abstract: Comets are small, icy remnants from the early solar system that have been held in the cold outer reaches of the solar system since their formation 4.6 billion years ago. In order to study their composition, we must rely on perturbations to send them into the inner solar system where the Sun's heat causes ices to sublimate into gases that we can then measure with telescopes on Earth.
Over the past few decades, astronomers have compiled a database of compositions of molecules like water, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, methanol, formaldehyde, ammonia, ethane, and methane to name a few. Several of these molecules are precursors to the complex organic molecules used by life on Earth and astrobiologists are interested in how those molecules are distributed through space and delivered to planets. Very recently, we have also started finding comets that originated from outside our solar system, which allows us unprecedented insight into the chemistry that occurred around other young stars. I will discuss how we measure the composition of comets, what they tell us about the origins of the solar system, and what we still have left to learn from these enigmatic objects.
Biography: Erika's interest in astronomy began at age 10 with a school project about the life cycle of stars. She pursued this interest professionally by earning a B.S. in Physics and Astronomy at Northern Arizona University where she spent three years observing
solar type stars to characterize their magnetic activity cycles at Lowell Observatory. This was followed by a Ph. D. in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2001 with a study of interstellar ices and postdoctoral research positions at NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center and the University of Notre Dame studying the composition of comets and protoplanetary disks. She is currently a Professor at the University of Missouri - St. Louis and interested in the evolution of prebiotically important molecules through the star formation process to their incorporation on terrestrial planets like Earth and particularly how comets can be used as fossils of the early solar system.
Dr. Mike Krawczynski speaker information
Title: More Than Meets the Eye: The Hidden Geology of our Lunar Neighbor
Abstract: Peer through a telescope and the Moon erupts into a high-contrast wilderness of jagged crater rims, winding sinuous rilles, and vast, frozen seas of ancient lava flows.
Yet, these striking features are only the surface of a much deeper story. This presentation dives into the Moon, transitioning from the stark morphological contrasts of the ancient anorthositic highlands and the younger, basaltic lunar maria to the chemical nuances of its interior.
We will explore the evolution of lunar magmatism and the volcanic processes that shaped the surface, alongside the enigmatic origins of lunar magnetic swirls—localized anomalies that challenge our understanding of planetary magnetism. By utilizing laboratory and analog experiments, studies of Apollo-era samples as well as lunar meteorites, advanced analytical techniques, and spectroscopy to peer beyond visible wavelengths, we can identify mineralogical compositions and trace elemental abundances that remain invisible to the human eye. From the deep-seated secrets of the lunar mantle to the crystalline structures of its crust, this talk offers a comprehensive look at the Moon, not just as our eternal satellite, but as a dynamic geological laboratory that continues to redefine our understanding of the early solar system.
Biography: Mike Krawczynski is an Associate Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. He is an experimental geochemist who specializes in the formation and evolution of planets by recreating the extreme conditions of planetary interiors in his laboratory, as well as studying volcanic rocks from the Earth.
Academic Background & Appointments
Education: PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Joint Program
Current Role: Associate Professor at WashU for over 11 years
Affiliations: Principal Investigator of the Experimental Geochemistry Lab and member of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences.
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