Information for Prospective Graduate Students
The Ohio State Department of Astronomy offers a superb Ph.D. program for
graduate students interested in optical/infrared observational
astrophysics and/or theoretical astrophysics. We place a strong
emphasis on research -- students begin to work on research projects as
soon as they arrive, and we encourage them to work with several
different research advisors during the course of their graduate
education. Our graduating students have typically authored or
co-authored 8-15 refereed journal articles by the time they complete the
program, in addition to numerous conference papers and abstracts. Our
1st- and 2nd-year students are already active researchers, publishing
papers, attending conferences, giving talks, going on observing runs,
and working in the instrument lab. This early initiation into the
astronomical research community pays off when students graduate.
- Current OSU Astronomy Graduate
Students
- Recent First-Author
Papers by OSU Astronomy Graduate Students
- Research Programs &
Observing Facilities
- Astronomy Graduate Program Fact Sheet
[1.1Mb PDF]
Recent PhD graduates have gone on to postdoctoral positions at the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the Carnegie Observatories,
the Institute for Advanced Study, UC Santa Cruz, the Kavli Institute at
the University of Chicago, Space Telescope Science Institute, UCLA,
Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, University of Leiden, Brera
Observatory in Italy, Observatoire de Paris, SUNY Stony Brook,
Princeton, and Pierce College. Our recent graduates have been awarded
many of the most prestigous postdoctoral fellowships in Astronomy,
including several Hubble and Carnegie Fellowships, one of the first
Sagan Fellows, and the Princeton-Catolica, Menzel, and Clay Fellowships.
- Ph.D. Recipients since 1955
About the Astronomy Department
Many aspects of our graduate program are described in the Astronomy
Department Magazine, published in 2004 by the College of Mathematical
and Physical Sciences:
- Astronomy Department Magazine
[1.7Mb PDF]
Highlights of Recent Developments:
- Ohio State has hired five new faculty in the last 5 years: Todd
Thompson, B. Scott Gaudi, Jennifer Johnson, Paul Martini, and Kris
Stanek.
- Ohio State is a 1/6 partner in the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) project,
which has already achieved first-light with the first of its two 8.4-m
mirrors in October 2005, and now has its full complement of two 8.4-m
mirrors with aluminum coatings at this writing. Limited science
operations with the LBC prime focus cameras began in early 2007, and the
first optical and IR spectrometers will be commissioned and become
available for science observing during 2010, with adaptive optics and
interferometric instruments following in subsequent years.
OSU is building the MODS optical spectrometers, a
powerful optical multi-object spectrograph for the LBT, a fixed
secondary mirror, and has built the primary-mirror aluminization system.
The first MODS spectrograph will be commissioned in 2010 (assembly and
testing of MODS1 at OSU has been going in earnest since 2005), with the
second MODS spectrograph coming online about a year later.
A graduate student entering our program in the Autumn of 2009 would
have immediate access to the MDM telescopes for research (see below), as
well as the unparalleled opportunity of participating in building a
major LBT facility instrument and taking part in observatory
commissioning activities. By this student's third year (2011/12), the
LBT should be operational and ready for dissertation research projects.
- Ohio State is a 1/4 partner in the MDM Observatory Consortium which
includes Dartmouth, Michigan, Columbia, and Ohio University in Athens.
This gives us 25% of the time on (a) a superb 2.4-m telescope on a Kitt
Peak site that routinely delivers sub-arcsecond images, and (b) a 1.3-m
telescope on the same site, which we have been using heavily for
photometric monitoring and wide-field imaging studies. OSU has provided
many ofacility instruments to MDM: an infrared imager/spectrometer, a
CCD spectrometer, a side-port CCD camera on the 2.4-meter (RETROCAM), a
wide-field 4Kx4K CCD imager for the 1.3-m, and a new multi-object
optical spectrometer, OSMOS, which will be completed in mid-2010. The
RETROCAM, MDM4K, and OSMOS projects were carried out with significant
involvement by OSU graduate students.
- OSU is a partner in the Sloan Digital
Sky Survey-III, participating in all of the major SDSS-III
projects: MARVELS, BOSS, APOGEE, and SEGUE-2.
-
Ohio State continues to be actively engaged in research with small
telescopes for a variety of projects, including photometric follow-up of
gravitational microlensing events to search for planets. The dual-beam
optical/infrared cameras that have been used for this work in Chile by
the MicroFUN collaboration were built at OSU.
We are continuing our efforts to equip 1-meter class telescopes in the
southern hemisphere for related work, particularly as founding members
of the SMARTS consortium
that now operates the small and medium aperture telescopes at CTIO. For
the 1-meter we have provided a CCD camera and 12-position filter wheel,
the later designed and built by OSU graduate students. OSU students
regularly observe at CTIO as part of our SMARTS projects.
- The Departments of Astronomy and Physics have recently established a
Center for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (CCAPP) to
pursue research on the connections between cosmology, astrophysics, and
high energy physics. CCAPP is intended to focus Ohio State's expertise
in these areas to address questions such as the nature of dark energy,
dark matter, and the values of fundamental cosmological parameters. The
Center, with over $5M in funding, hosts an active group of graduate and
postdoctoral Fellows, a regular seminar series, weekly lunch
discussions, and a series of mini-workshops.
-
The department has been aggressively expanding its computational
resources, including:
- Two Beowulf cluster, one granted to the department by the Ohio Supercomputing Center's Cluster Ohio project, the
other purchased with combined research funds (Gravitational Lensing and
Microlensing Planet Search programs). Both are optimized for large
projects requiring massively parallel computing (or just serious trivial
parallelism). The systems include large (multi-Tb) storage nodes and
abundant memory.
- A network of more than 100 Linux workstations, most with Intel
dual-core processors, are assigned to individual students, postdocs, or
faculty for their exclusive use. These computers are also linked
together into a department-wide Condor cluster that lets us
make more efficient use of unused computer cycles during off-hours for
high-throughput computing.
All of these computing resources are available to students in our
program (in fact, they are often the primary users).
-
There has been one important addition to the course offerings since the
brochure was produced: an informal course on Order-of-Magnitude Astrophysics, in
which students work their way through a wide range of astronomical
problems starting from basic physical principles.
Observational research interests of the Ohio State faculty include
extrasolar planets, star formation, stellar evolution, stellar
populations, chemical evolution and the origin of the elements, the
interstellar medium, the Galactic center, Galactic structure,
gravitational microlensing, galaxies, AGN's, and the evolution of
quasars. Theoretical research interests include atomic astrophysics,
primordial and stellar nucleosynthesis, stellar structure and evolution,
the interstellar medium, Galactic structure, dark matter, galaxy
dynamics, AGN's, galaxy formation, the intergalactic medium, large scale
structure, and determination of cosmological parameters. On many
topics, a student has a choice of several possible research advisors.
Interested students also have the opportunity to work on instrumentation
through the department's Imaging Sciences Laboratory, a group of ten
research staff with expertise in optics, detectors, electronics,
mechanical design, and software engineering. This group works closely
with the observational faculty and builds optical and infrared
instruments for a variety of telescopes.
Astronomy is a close-knit department with a lively atmosphere and a
great deal of daily contact between students and faculty. Faculty
contact comes naturally through research supervision and classes, but
also through daily coffee, weekly journal clubs
and colloquia, student-organized reading groups, and many informal
events. Students at Ohio State have more opportunity to learn from
close interaction with faculty than they would in virtually any other
astronomy program.
Applying to the Program
Minimum Requirements for Admission
Minimum admissions requirements are an earned 4-year baccalaureate or
higher degree from an accredited college or university prior to
beginning gradute studies, a minimum cumulative 3.0 GPA (4.0 scale) in
all prior undergraduate and graduate-level work, and credentials
documenting prerequisite academic work that gives evidence of your
ability to pursue a graduate program in astrophysics. In addition, all
applicants must take both the GRE General Test and the GRE Subject Test
in Physics.
English Proficiency
International applicants whose native language is not English are
required to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).
Minimum English Proficiency Requirements are at least a 550 on the
paper-based (213 on the computer-based) TOEFL, equivalent to a total
score of 80 on the internet-based TOEFL; or (less common) 82 on the
MELAB or 7.0 on the IELTS exams.
Online Application Materials
All application materials for the OSU Graduate School are available
online:
- Graduate Admissions
Please be careful to apply under the correct category (Domestic or
International).
- We do not have resources to waive application fees for International
or Domestic applicants.
Domestic Applicant Checklist
International Applicant Checklist
Deadlines
These deadlines are for receipt of applications for admission to the
Astronomy graduate program starting in Autumn Quarter of 2010:
- Domestic Students: 2010 January 4
- International Students: 2009 November 30
We strongly encourage applicants to get all materials (including
reference letters) to OSU at least one week ahead of the nominal
deadline. Incomplete applications are not eligible for entry in the
University-wide fellowship competition. International students who
apply after the November 30 deadline will be considered for
internal financial aid (TA or RA) but cannot be entered in the
University fellowship competition. Late applications for either group
of students may not be considered for admission during the
upcoming year.
All successful applicants who are not awarded University Fellowships
will be offered financial support as Teaching Assistants or
Research Assistants; we fully support all of our graduate students from
entry through completion of their PhDs. If you are interested in our
program but cannot get everything in by the deadline above, please
contact the Astronomy Department Graduate Admissions chair.
Further Information
Please also feel free to send e-mail to Prof. Andrew Gould
(gould@astronomy.ohio-state.edu), Graduate Admissions Chair.
