Current Team Members
Post-doctoral Associates
Alicia Rouco Escorial (2019-Present)
Alicia is an X-ray astronomer with a keen interest in optical astronomy. She is interested in the rapid follow-up of transient events using a combination of different X-ray observatories, & learning about the various multiwavelength phenomena in our Universe. Alicia started as a postdoc at NU in Fall 2019. She currently works on the characterization of the X-ray properties of short gamma-ray bursts & finding the counterparts of gravitational wave events. Alicia finished her university studies at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain) & performed two projects at ESAC-ESA (European Space Agency) focused on developing a catalogue of blazars & characterizing quasiperiodic oscillations in low-mass X-ray binaries. In 2019, she obtained her Ph. D. from the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands) where she studied the low-level accretion mechanism in Be/X-ray transients, & the accretion-heated crust cooling emission from the high magnetic field neutron stars harbored in these systems. Alicia loves cinema & animals, she always keeps photos of her pets with her. When she is not ‘looking at the sky’, she is practicing sports, especially basketball & soccer, & preparing for half-marathons.
Kerry Paterson (2018-Present)
Kerry has worked extensively on MeerLICHT, an optical robotic telescope situated in South Africa, with regards to the development of the data processing pipeline to detect transients in real-time. Her main science focus has been on cataclysmic variables, with ample observing experience in optical photometry. Her current work at NU involves the follow-up and characterization of optical counterparts of gravitational waves events with multiple-wavelength observations and simulations.
Graduate Students
Yuxin (Vic) Dong (2021-Present)
Vic lived in Fuzhou, China until the age of 11 and moved to Tennessee with her family in the United States. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Honors Physics with two minors (astronomy & mathematics) from Purdue University in May, 2021. During her undergraduate years, her research focused on constraining the progenitors of Ca-Rich transients through stellar population analyses of supernovae’s host environments. Currently, Vic is helping Anya with building the BRIGHT catalogue and determining host galaxy properties of SGRBs. She has recently joined the Fast Radio Burst (FRB) community to trigger optical follow-ups on the millisecond-duration, bright radio transients. She is also involved in a crossmatching project that aims to build an infrastructure on rapidly associating current and future FRB detections to any and all associated optical transients. Aside from her research work, Vic enjoys hiking, snowboarding, getting boba/coffee with friends, and visiting National Parks across the country.
Alexa Gordon (2020-Present)
Alexa grew up in Michigan’s lower peninsula and earned her bachelor’s degree in Astrophysics from Lyman Briggs College at Michigan State University with minors in Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering; and History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science. At MSU, she researched hard X-ray emission from gamma-ray emitting novae. Now, Alexa studies fast radio bursts (FRBs), mysterious short radio pulses of unknown origin, by using SED modeling to infer the stellar population properties of their host galaxies. She is also a part of the Fast and Fortunate for FRB Follow-up (F4) collaboration whose goal is to study FRBs and their hosts with multiwavelength follow-up to learn more about these exciting events. Outside of work, Alexa enjoys playing flute and piano, knitting, board games and video games, and playing with her adorable cat Oberon.
Jillian Rastinejad (2019-Present)
Jillian is originally from Connecticut and double-majored in physics and human rights at the University of Connecticut. She studies kilonovae, optical-infrared transients created by binary neutron star mergers, from the short gamma-ray burst perspective. She is also a part of the SAGUARO team, which searches for electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave events. Jillian is passionate about STEM outreach, coffee, her family and their Persian & Chinese culture and has a personal goal of visiting as many national parks as possible (she is only at 6 as of Summer 2020).
Anya Nugent (2018-Present)
Anya grew up in the Bay Area in California and went to Hamilton College in central New York before pursuing a PhD at Northwestern. At Hamilton, she double majored in Physics & Hispanic Studies (and is fluent in Spanish!) and swam all four years for the varsity swim team. She currently studies the host galaxies & environments of short gamma-ray bursts. Specifically, Anya does SED modeling using optical to infrared photometric and spectroscopic data to determine stellar population properties of the hosts. This data will be used to build the SGRB host catalogue BRIGHT. Anya also helps plan and facilitate conversations at CIERA’s weekly social justice meetings and is passionate about making a comfortable & supportive environment for everyone within the astronomy community. Outside of research, Anya loves to go on long walks by the lake, do yoga, and celebrate her Asian-Indian heritage by cooking lots of Indian food!
Genevieve Schroeder (2018-Present)
Genevieve is from the Fingerlakes Region of New York and received her BS in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Rochester before starting her graduate studies at Northwestern. Genevieve is interested in the birth and death of stars, and her research focuses on radio emission from gamma ray bursts. Specifically, Genevieve has searched for magnetar emission from short gamma ray bursts in the radio bands, and also works on modeling the spectrum and light curves of long, dark gamma ray bursts. To balance out research, she enjoys rounding up friends to go on snack expeditions at nearby coffee shops, going to the gym, and cuddling with her cat Juliette, who she adopted in her first year at NU.
Undergraduate Students
Saarah Hall (Summer 2021) – mentor: Dr. Kerry Paterson
Saarah is from Aurora, IL and is currently majoring in Physics with a concentration in Astrophysics at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research at UPenn focused on visualizations of Trans-Neptunian Objects. This summer she is working with Kerry Paterson as a part of the SAGUARO team, a group that searches for the optical counterparts to gravitational wave events. Saarah also loves pilates, video editing, and cold brew.
Olivia Guerra (Summer 2021) – mentor: Dr. Alicia Rouco Escorial
Olivia is a junior at Northwestern pursuing a B.S. in Computer Science. This summer, she is writing python code that works with hdf5 files, SGRB afterglow data, and plots across multiple wavelengths. Outside of academics, Olivia is the treasurer of Northwestern’s student-led group Graffiti Dancers, and she enjoys working on her cooking skills and spending time with family and friends.
Jason Vazquez (Summer 2021) – mentor: Dr. Charlie Kilpatrick
Jason is from the suburbs of Chicago and is double majoring in Astronomy and Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He works with Drs. Charlie Kilpatrick and Wen-fai Fong on modeling supernovae properties to constrain the pathway by which massive stars explode. Outside of research and academics, he’s playing basketball, soccer, biking, at the gym, or out with friends
Independent Collaborators
Tarraneh Eftekhari, CIERA Fellow (2021-Present)
Huei Sears, PhD student, Research Advisor: Ryan Chornock at UC Berkeley (2020-Present)
Huei earned a BS in Advanced Mathematics with a double major in Astrophysics from Lyman Briggs College at Michigan State University. She then earned her Masters in Physics at Ohio University. She continues her pursuit of a PhD at Northwestern University studying long-duration gamma-ray burst host galaxies with Prof. Ryan Chornock. Huei is an active member of the Astrobites collaboration and is a Student Ambassador for the American Physical Society. In her free time, Huei enjoys spending time with her little sister, walking by the lake, and listening to Taylor Swift’s extensive discography.
Alexandra Mannings, PhD student at UC Santa Cruz, Research Advisor: J. Xavier Prochaska (2020-Present)
Alexandra Mannings, hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, is a second-year graduate student in The University of California – Santa Cruz’s Astronomy & Astrophysics department. She completed her undergraduate studies at The University of Alabama, where she earned degrees in Physics and Dance. Her research focuses on FRB host galaxy characterization and studying immediate burst environments as a means of constraining progenitor models. When Alex is not doing research, she enjoys teaching dance, watching movies, and spending time outdoors.
Charlie Kilpatrick, CIERA Fellow (2020-Present)
Charlie is an optical, infrared, & radio astronomer whose research focuses on the pathways by which massive stars die & explode, using pre-explosion images & the remnants they leave behind to study the turbulent final years of massive star evolution. He is also closely involved in transient surveys & gravitational wave follow up efforts, & he was the first person to see and identify the optical counterpart to the LIGO/Virgo binary neutron star merger GW170817. Charlie received his Bachelor’s degree in astrophysics (with a minor in history) at the California Institute of Technology in 2010. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 2016 where he designed & implemented a sub-millimeter survey to look for stellar explosions that slam into dense molecular clouds in the Milky Way galaxy, triggering star formation & high-energy particle acceleration. In his free time, Charlie likes to cook, read history & science fiction, & spend time with his family in Chicago.
Kate Alexander, NASA NHFP Einstein+CIERA Fellow (2019-Present)
Kate is currently a CIERA Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University. She completed her undergraduate degree in physics at Brown University in 2012 and received her PhD in Astronomy & Astrophysics from Harvard University in 2018, where she was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. Her research focuses on extreme events in the cosmos, including stellar explosions, neutron star mergers, and tidal disruptions of stars by supermassive black holes. Outside of work, Kate enjoys hiking, cycling, and traveling.
Shi (Claire) Ye, PhD student at Northwestern, Research Advisor: Fred Rasio (2019-Present)
Claire is originally from Southern China and earned her bachelor’s degree in Physics at Zhejiang University in the beautiful city of Hangzhou. Currently, Claire simulates globular clusters using the Cluster Monte Carlo code powered by supercomputers at Northwestern. Her research focuses on the dynamical evolution of compact objects in globular clusters, especially the interactions between neutron stars and black holes, the birth and life of millisecond pulsars and the formation of gravitational wave sources. Outside of research, Claire enjoys playing tennis, video games, hiking and camping.
Former Team Members
Read their exit interviews to learn about research life in the Fong Group!
Undergraduate Students
David Velasco (Winter 2021) – mentors: Drs. Kerry Paterson and Charlie Kilpatrick, currently a senior at DePaul University
Imaging software development
Armaan Goyal (2019-2020) – currently a PhD student at Indiana University
Large Binocular Telescope spectroscopic data reduction
Sarah Popp (Summer 2020) – mentors: Drs. Kerry Paterson and Alicia Rouco Escorial, currently a PhD student at Indiana University
Short gamma-ray burst X-ray light curve fitting
Owen Eskandari (2018-2020) – Dartmouth College
Training machine learning algorithms for gravitational wave event searches, imaging software development
Owen Eskandari’s Exit Interview
Maura Lally (2018-2021) – senior thesis mentor: Genevieve Schroeder, currently an NSF GRFP Fellow at Cornell University in Astrophysics
Maura recently graduated from Northwestern, majoring in Physics with an Astronomy concentration. She contributes to studies of dark LGRB host galaxies, modeling the properties of observed host galaxies in Prospector. She has also contributed to research of SGRB afterglows. She enjoys passing the time by baking, eating those baked goods, and walking near Lake Michigan (the best Great Lake).
Susanna Torres-Londono (Summer 2018), currently an NSF GRFP Fellow at Caltech in Applied Physics
UC Berkeley – host-less short gamma-ray bursts
Carlo Esquivia (Summer 2018), currently a software engineer at JP Morgan Chase
Hamilton College – simulating off-axis afterglow emission
Dylaan Cornish (2018-2020)
Northwestern University – modeling galaxy stellar populations