Kamenetzky earns prestigious fellowship

Julia Kamenetzky ’08 was awarded a National Science Foundation Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at the University of Arizona.

The fellowship program is intended to recognize early-career investigators of significant potential and to provide them with experience in research and education that will establish them in positions of distinction and leadership in the community. Kamenetzky, who majored in physics at Cornell, earned a Ph.D. in Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences from the University of Colorado, Boulder in May 2014. While at Cornell, she received a Goldwater Fellowship and Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation.

With her postdoctoral fellowship, which begins in September and provides three years of support, Kamenetzky will study molecular gas, the raw material of star formation, in order to add to our understanding of which physical processes are most important for increasing and decreasing star formation.

This study will occur with a combination of high-resolution maps of molecular gas from the Atacama Large Millimeter Arrayto. Additionally, she will develop and distribute new research-based, student-focused radio astronomy curriculum with the Center for Astronomy Education.