For the past four years, the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP) and the Smithsonian Astronomical Observatory (SAO) have partnered to create cutting-edge research internships within the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project targeting STEM undergrad and graduate students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. This NSBP/SAO EHT Scholars program is now preparing internships for Summer 2024, and we welcome applications– especially from NSBP members. Up to three Scholars will be selected from a competitive pool of applicants to be matched with world class mentors at SAO this coming summer.
The program has had a remarkable track record of successes: 2020 Scholar Elon Price defended her Fisk Master’s thesis on modeling the Sagittarius A* inner accretion flow, 2021 Scholar Dr. Brandon Curd led an MNRAS publication on the detectability of super-Eddington flows from tidal disruption events by EHT, 2022 Scholars Emmanuel Durodola and Nitya Nigam are both co-authors of Emission Modeling in the EHT/ngEHT Age, and 2023 Scholar Kaitlyn Shavelle has led a manuscript with Dr. Daniel Palumbo for submission to the Astrophysical Journal Letters. Importantly, the NSBP/SAO EHT Scholars has served as a feeder to the EHT, as Dr. Brandon Curd joined the Collaboration upon creatively relating his Harvard PhD thesis on super-Eddington accretion to potential observational signatures of tidal disruption events for the EHT. Dr. Curd is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at San Antonio in the research group of Professor Richard Anantua.
The 5th year may mark a key turning point in the Scholars program, as the SAO’s NSF MSRI-2 proposal– if awarded– will enable the expansion of the program to several leading research institutions and diverse societies such as the Society for the Advancement of Native Americans and Chicanos in the Sciences (SACNAS).
More Information
Previous Press Releases:
2020
NSBP News: NSBP/SAO Event Horizon Telescope Scholars
American Astronomical Society: Program Opens New Research Pathways for Underrepresented Young Astrophysicists
Event Horizon Telescope: NSBP/SAO EHT Scholars Program Opens New Research Pathways for Underrepresented Young Physicists
2021
Event Horizon Telescope: NSBP/SAO EHT Scholars Reaches Second Year Milestone
Contact Information:
Richard Anantua
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Texas at San Antonio
San Antonio, TX, USA
Email: richard.anantua@utsa.edu
Sheperd Doeleman
Smithsonian Astronomical Observatory
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA, USA