List of PhD Graduates

This is a list of PhD graduates of the Astronomy program at the University of Illinois. We try to keep this list up-to-date, but it is inevitable that some of the information listed below will be out-of-date. If you are a graduate of the program and your information is missing/inaccurate, please contact the department webmaster, Rebecca Bare at rsbare@illinois.edu.

         
NAME GRADUATION DATE FIRST POSITION & INSTITUTION CURRENT POSITION & INSTITUTION ADVISOR
Yu-Ching (Tony) Chen August 2023 Post Doc, John Hopkins University, MD Post Doc, John Hopkins University, MD Liu
Alexander Gagliano May 2023 Post Doc MIT & Harvard Center for Astrophysics Post Doc MIT & Harvard Center for Astrophysics Narayan
Samantha Thrush May 2023     Kemball
Rachel Harrison December 2022 Post-Doc at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia Post-Doc at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia Looney
Jesse Miller December 2022 Post-Doc at Boston University Post-Doc at Boston University Fields
Adrienne Ertel December 2022     Fields
Sreevani Jarugula December 2022 Post Doc at Fermi Lab Post Doc at Fermi Lab Vieira
Jennifer Li August 2021 Postdoc position at U of Michigan.
 		 Postdoc position at U of Michigan.
 		 Shen
Patrick Mullen August 2021 Joint postdoctoral appointment at the IAS in Princeton, NJ and CCA in NYC Joint postdoctoral appointment at the IAS in Princeton, NJ and CCA in NYC Gammie

Di Wen

 December 2020 Postdoc at University of Groningen, Netherlands Postdoc at University of Groningen, Netherlands Kemball
Ko-Yun (Monica) Huang December 2020 Post doc, Leiden University, Netherlands Post doc, Leiden University, Netherlands Kemball
Wei-Ting Liao December 2020 ASTRO3D postdoc in University of Melbourne, Australia ASTRO3D postdoc in University of Melbourne, Australia Turk
Yinghe (Celeste) Lu August 2020 Postdoc at Cambridge University UK Postdoc at Cambridge University UK Ricker
Miguel Holgado August 2020 Post Doc, Carnegie Mellon University Post Doc, Carnegie Mellon University Ricker
Andrew Nadolski May 2020 Intel, Portland, OR Intel, Portland, OR Vieira
Taylor Tobin December 2019 Post Doc at Notre Dame University Post Doc, FEPS Research Group at University of Michigan Kemball
Yixian Cao December 2018 Post doc at 
Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, France. 
 
 Post doc at 
Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics, Germany
 
 Wong
Daniel George December 2018 AI Research Scientist, Google X Vice President, AI Lead, JPMorgan Chase Allen
Ricky Chun Yin Chue December 2018 Teaching Assistant, U of I R&D Engineer,  Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. Dongguan, Guangdong, P.R. China Dalal
Xilu Wang December 2018 Post Doc at Notre Dame University Associate Professor at the Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Fields
Erin Cox August 2018 Post-Doc at Northwestern University Post-Doc at Northwestern University Looney
Benjamin Ryan May 2018 Director's Postdoctoral Fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory Staff Member at Los Alamos National Laboratory Gammie
Dominique Segura-Cox December 2017 Postdoctoral Researcher at Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany NSF Fellow at University of Texas, Austin Looney
Susmita Adhikari August 2017 Post-Doc, Stanford University, KIPAC Asst. Professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Dalal
Manichandra Morampudi December 2016 Own business, India Quazar Tech, Ltd., India Gammie
Brian Fry August 2016 Air Force Technical Staff Member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory Fields
Jessica Evans August 2016 Visiting Lecturer, U of I Physical Therapist, Kalamazoo, MI Chu
Gary Foreman May 2016 Data Scientist, State Farm AI Engineer, Google Cloud, Phoenix, AZ Ricker
Rukmani Vijayaraghavan August 2015 NSF Post Doctoral Fellow at the University of Virginia

AIP/AAAS Congressional Science Fellow, US Department of Energy, Washington, DC

 Ricker
Rui (Jerry) Xue August 2015 Post Doc, Purdue University

Software Engineer at National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Iowa

 Wong
Matias Carrasco Kind December 2014 Research Scientist, NCSA Research Scientist, NCSA Brunner
Yiran (Janet) Wang December 2014 Post Doc, NCSA Start-up Company, Texas Brunner
Ian Stephens December 2013 Postdoc, Boston University Assistant Professor, Worcester State University, Worcester, MA Looney

David Rebolledo

 December 2013

Postdoc, Univ of Sydney

 Astronomer at ALMA, Chile Wong
Kuo-Chuan Pan August 2013 Postdoc, Department of Physics at Basel University in Switzerland Associate Professor, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan Ricker
Nicholas Hakobian August 2013 Audax Health, Data Scientist Staff Data Scientist at Rally Health Crutcher
Nachiketa Chakraborty August 2013 Postdoctoral Fellow at Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik Lecturer in Mathematics and Data Science, Coventry University, UK Fields
Hotaka Shiokawa August 2013 Postdoc, Johns Hopkins

Senior Data Scientist at Fidelity, Boston, MA

 Gammie
I-Jen Lee May 2013 Postdoc, University of Maryland (College Park) Consultant, Ab Initio Software Looney
Ki-Jeong Yim December 2012 Postdoc, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen  Korea Astronomy and Space Institute Wong
Modhurita Mitra August 2012 Postdoctoral Research Associate, U of I Data Analysis Researcher , Germany Kemball
Brett Hayes August 2012 Visiting Lecturer, University of Illinois Boost Services at Epic Brunner
Jana Bilikova May 2012 Adjunct Faculty, Santa Monica College   Chu
Hsin-Fang Chiang December 2011 Astrobiology Postdoctoral Fellow at Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii Data Management Science Analyst and Engineer, Rubin Observatory, San Francisco, CA Looney
Joshua Dolence December 2011 Postdoctoral Research Associate, Princeton University

Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory

 Gammie
Troy Hacker December 2011 Major, United States Air Force Program Director at TEC Solutions Brunner
Nicholas Indriolo August 2011 Assistant Research Scientist, Johns Hopkins University Scientist, Space Telescope Science Institute McCall
Amy Lien August 2011 Research Fellow, NASA/GSFC Assistant Professor of Physics, University of Tampa Fields
Hsiang-Yi (Karen) Yang August 2011 Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Michigan Assistant Professor, National Tsing Hua University Ricker
Paul Sutter August 2011 Paris Institute of Astrophysics Center for Computational Astrophysics at the Flatiron Institute Ricker
Po Kin Leung December 2010 Postdoc at UC Santa Barbara Senior Lecturer, Chinese University of Hong Kong Gammie
Jonathan Seale December 2010 Postdoc at Space Telescope Science Institute

Principal Data Scientist & Big Data Architect at ATA, LLC; Washington, DC

 Looney
Jeeseon Song December 2010 Postdoc at University of Michigan   Mohr
Chao-Chin Yang August 2010 Postdoc at UC Santa Cruz Senior Research fellow at Lund Observatory, Sweden Ricker
Rishi Khatri August 2010 Postdoc at Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India Wandelt
Woojin Kwon December 2009 Postdoc at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Staff, Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute Looney
Xiaoyue Guan October 2009 Postdoc at University of Virginia  Chevron Gammie
Britt Lundgren October 2009 Postdoc at Yale University

Associate Professor of Physics, UNC-Asheville

 Brunner
Ashley Ross October 2009 Postdoc at University of Portsmouth (UK) Research Scientist at Ohio State University Brunner
Zarija Lukic October 2008 Postdoc at Los Alamos National Lab

Research Scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy

 Ricker
Yu-Shao "Jerry" Shiao October 2008 Postdoc at ASIAA

Joint Associate Fellow, Leung Center for Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics, National Taiwan University

 Looney
Shiya Wang October 2008 Postdoc at University of Michigan Uranium and TENORM Lead at Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Looney
Amit Pratap Singh Yadav October 2008 Postdoc at Harvard Center for Astrophysics   Wandelt
Bryan C. Dunne May 2007 Visiting Teaching Associate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Teaching Assistant Professor of Astronomy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Chu
Chang-Hui Rosie Chen May 2007 Postdoc, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Scientific Staff, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy Chu
Tijana Prodanovic October 2006 Research Associate, University of Novi Sad, Serbia Professor, University of Novi Sad, Serbia Fields
Yun Chen May 2006     Lamb
Douglas Friedel December 2005 Postdoc, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Sr. Research Programmer, NCSA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Snyder
Paulo Cortes December 2005 Postdoc, Universidad de Chile, Santiago Staff Astronomer, ALMA, Santiago, Chile Crutcher
Paschalis Paschos December 2005 Research Associate, University of California, San Diego Sr. Computational Scientist at University of Chicago Norman
Vasiliki Pavlidou October 2005 Postdoc, University of Chicago Associate Professor, University of Crete Fields
Konstantinos Tassis October 2005 Postdoc, University of Chicago Associate Professor, University of Crete Mouschovias
Ian O'Dwyer October 2005 NRC Fellow, JPL/Caltech

COO of Rosemont Veterinary Hospital LaCrescenta, California

 Wandelt
Yen-Ting Lin August 2005 Fellow, Princeton/Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile Associate research fellow, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica Mohr
Anthony Remijan January 2004 Postdoc, GSFC  Scientist; Manager of Observatory Scientific Support and Research, NRAO Snyder
Wen-Ching Lin October 2003 Postdoc, University of California San Diego Machine Learning Engineer, META, CA Norman
Michelle Griffin December 2003 Language Student   Thompson
David Fong May 2003 Postdoc, Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Hawaii Professor, Olympic College, Washington Meixner
Richard Frazin May 2002 Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge MA Associate Research Scientist, University of Michigan Mihalas
Toshiya Ueta May 2002 Postdoc, Royal Observatory of Belgium Associate Professor, University of Denver Meixner
Sean Points October 2001 Postdoc, Northwestern University Scientist, NOAO/CTIO, Chile Chu
Shih-Ping Lai October 2001 Postdoc, JPL Professor, National Tsing-Hua University, Taiwan Crutcher
Ward Manchester May 2000 Research Fellow, University of Michigan Research Professor, University of Michigan Mihalas
Jeff Veal May 2000 Instructor, Southwestern College Professor, Southwestern College Snyder
Sheng-Yuan Liu January 2000 Postdoc, California Institute of Technology

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Institute of Astronomy, National Tsing Hua University

 Snyder
Ramprasad Rao May 1999 Postdoc, University of Chicago

Physicist/Astronomy at Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

 Crutcher
Rosa Williams May 1999 Postdoc, GSFC Professor/Mead Observatory Director, Columbus State University, Georgia Chu
Rolaine Young Owl May 1999 Postdoc, UCLA Lives in California Thompson
Dimitrios Psaltis October 1998 Postdoc, Harvard Smithsonian CfA - Fellow Professor of Astronomy, University of Arizona Lamb
Vassiliki (Vicky) Kalogera October 1997 Postdoc, Harvard Smithsonian CfA - Fellow Daniel I. Linzer Professor of Physics & Astronomy, Northwestern University
Co-Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA)		 Webbink
Lisa Norton Young May 1997 Postdoc, New Mexico State University - Fellow Professor, New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology Lo
Gregory Bryan October 1996 Research Associate, MIT Department of Physics Professor, Columbia University Norman
Nina Yanti Miao October 1996 Postdoc, UIUC CEO, Nanjing Olo Home Furnishing Co., Ltd Snyder
Yu Zhang October 1996 Postdoc, University of Rochester Medical Center Staff Scientist, University of Rochester Medical Center Norman
David J. Bell May 1996 Support Scientist, NOAO

IT Specialist, Tucson, Arizona Area

 

 Yoss
Byung-Il Jun October 1995 Postdoc, University of Minnesota Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Lab Norman
Letizia Stanghellini May 1995 Tenured Astronomer, Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, Italy Astronomer, Head of National Gemini Office, NOAO/Kitt Peak Kaler
Yi-Jehng Kuan January 1995 Postdoc, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Taiwan Professor, National Taiwan Normal University Snyder
Raymond Plante January 1995 Visiting Postdoc, NCSA National Institute of Standards and Technology; Gaithersburg, MD Lo
Paul D. Gensheimer October 1994 Postdoc, Max-Planck-Institut fur Radioastronomie Lives in New Mexico Snyder
Baolian Cheng October 1993 Postdoc, Los Alamos National Lab Scientist, Los Alamos National Lab Truran
John C. Hayes October 1993 Postdoc, University of Arizona former professor at UC San Diego Mihalas
Bennett Link October 1991 Postdoc, Los Alamos National Lab Professor, Montana State University Baym
Jin Wang October 1991 Postdoc, UIUC, Chemistry Dept. Professor, SUNY Stony Brook Nanopoulos
Grant Bazan May 1991 Postdoc, University of Texas

ACC Program Manager at Los Alamos National Laboratory Santa Fe, New Mexico Area

 

 Truran
Dinshaw Balsara January 1991 Postdoc, Johns Hopkins University Professor, Notre Dame Norman
James M.  Stone October 1990 Postdoc, NCSA Professor, Princeton University Norman
Gunnlaugur Bjornsson May 1990 Postdoc, University of Iceland Research Scientist, University of Iceland Truran
Preethi Pratap May 1990 Postdoc, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Engineering Fellow at Raytheon

 

 Snyder
Anurag Shankar May 1990 Postdoc, University of Arizona Senior Security Analyst, Indiana University Truran
Michael Hjellming October 1989 Postdoc, Northwestern University

SVP, Shared Operations Technology Manager, Bank of America, North Carolina

 Webbink
Robert Loushin October 1989 Staff, 3M Quality Assurance Engineer at Carestream Health, Minneapolis, MN Webbink
Richard Arendt January 1989 NRC Associateship, GSFC

Sr Res Sci, Center for Space Science and Technology, GSFC

 

 Dickel
Andrew Abrahams October 1988 Research Associate, Cornell University COO of Long Dream Farm, Lincoln, CA Smarr
Peter Barnes October 1988 Postdoc, CITA, University of Toronto Associate Scientist, University of Florida Crutcher
Dave Hollowell May 1988 Scientist, Los Alamos National Lab Scientist, Los Alamos National Lab Iben
Carol Neese October 1987 Scientist, NOAO Scientist, Planetary Science Institute, Tucson Yoss
Howard Bushouse 1986 NRC Associateship, NASA Ames Research Center Senior Scientific Programmer, STScI Gallagher
Mark Schenewerk 1986 Geoscientist, NOAA National Geodetic Survey Snyder
Dean Sumi 1986 Postdoctoral Research Associate, NCSA Principal Electrical Engineer, MITRE; California Smarr
Richard Shaw 1985 Post Doc, Lick Observatory

Senior Archive Scientist, Space Telescope Science Institute

 

 Kaler
John F. Hawley October 1984

Bantrell Fellow at the California Institute of Technology

 VITA Professor, Associate Dean, University of Virginia Smarr
Scott Kenyon 1983

Post Doc, Center for Astrophysics

 Senior Scientist, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Webbink
David J. Lien 1983   Lives in Arizona Snyder
Kenneth Cosner 1982 Physicist at MRC Sr. Software Developer at Citadel LLC, Chicago Truran
Deidre Hunter 1982 postdoctoral fellowship at Kitt Peak National Observatory Astronomer, Lowell Observatory Gallagher
Allan Wirth 1982 Post Doc, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Technical Staff at MIT Lincoln Labs

 

 Gallagher
Philip R. Jewell 1982   Deputy Director, NRAO Snyder
Wendee M. Brunish 1981 Post Doc, University of Southern California Scientist, Los Alamos National Lab Truran
William I. Hartkopf 1981 Research Associate, Georgia State University Scientist, US Naval Observatory, retired Yoss
Stephen A. Becker 1979   Scientist, Los Alamos National Lab Iben
John Lavery 1978   Defense & Space Professional, San Diego Truran
Richard R. Radick 1978   retired from NOAO, National Solar Observatory Gallagher
Willis Boughton 1977   Associate Professor, Harper College Dickel
Sherman Kanagy 1977 Visiting professor, UIUC Retired Wyatt
L. Drake Deming May 1976   Professor, University of Maryland Olson
J. Richard Doughty December 1976     Kaler
Carolyn Lowrey Matthews August 1975   Lives in CA Kaler
Bert W. Rust December 1974 Scientist, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Scientist, NIST Olson
Joseph Degioanni August 1973 Resident in Space Medicine, Ohio State University Medical School CEO, Emtel, Inc. Dickel
Bruno Jambor May 1973

Principal Engineer, Lockheed Martin Corp., Denver, CO

 Retired. Author, resides in Colorado Wyatt
Anthony Willis October 1972 Postdoc, Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands retired from National Research Council of Canada Dickel
George Nickas June 1972   Professor Emeritus, Hanover College Wyatt
Edward W. Weis June 1972   Professor Emeritus, Wesleyan University Kaler
Julie H. Lutz February 1972   University of Washington, Emerita Research Professor Kaler
Marshall Faintich June 1971   Author, resides in Virginia Wyatt
William W. Warnock Sept. 1971 NRC Associateship, NOAA Environmental Research Laboratory   Dickel
Thomas May June 1970   Professor Emeritus, San Diego State University McVittie
Peter Melvin June 1970 Instructor of Physical Science, UIUC LAS Admin Astrophysicist, Naval Research Laboratory (retired) McVittie
Thomas Lutz October 1969   Professor, Washington State University (deceased) Wyatt
Richard R. Ringenberg October 1969   Research Scientist, US Government (retired) McVittie
Gary C. Goodman June 1969 Postdoc in Planetary Sciences, NASA Ames Research Center Professor, Oxnard College (retired) Dickel
Michael E. Cahill February 1969   Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin West Bend, deceased McVittie
Joseph W. Erkes October 1968   Physicist, General Electric, retired Dickel
Leo V. Standeford June 1968   Professor, Mankato State University (deceased) Wyatt
Paul D. Lee February 1968   Professor, Middle Tennessee State University, retired Kaler
William E. Greig October 1967     Kaler
Raymond E. White February 1967   Professor Emeritus, University of Arizona (deceased) McVittie
Elaine Avner January 1965 Troy State University, Alabama Senior Research Scientist, CERL Emerita, UIUC (deceased) King
John E. Geisler January 1965 Post Doc at MIT University of Utah, Professor Emeritus of Meteorology (deceased) Bowhill
Pamela A. Gray Geisler January 1965     McVittie
Ronald A. Schorn January 1963 Jet Propulsion Laboratory Professor, editor, author (deceased) Wyatt
Robert C. Roeder November 1962 Assistant Professor, Queen's University Professor Emeritus, Southwestern University McVittie
Charles C. Wylie 1922   Professor Emeritus, University of Iowa (deceased)