Photo taken of myself in front of the Green Bank 100 meter radio telescope collecting dish.

Author: Katelyn Bryant | Major: Astronomy, Physics | Semester: Spring 2025

My name is Katelyn Bryant and I am a graduate of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. I completed my major in Physics – astronomy and conducted research under the mentorship of Dr. Julia Kennefick of the Physics department. I completed my research in the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 semesters. After my graduation, I will attend graduate school at West Virginia University under a STEM Fellowship.

The research that I conducted was Astronomy research in the radio wavelengths for observations using a radio telescope. I made six observations over one pulsar titled Pulsar J0332+5434. The meaning behind the title is that it is in the J designation for the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the numbers that follow the J in the title is the galactic coordinates for the pulsar, the Right Ascension (RA) and the Declination (DEC). I took these observations to detect scintillation that occurs when collecting the radio signal from the pulsar and to provide an updated, more accurate look into what is between us and the pulsar in the Interstellar Medium (ISM).

I chose my topic after first attending a pulsar research summer camp in West Virginia at the Green Bank Observatory and meeting with Dr. Jacob Turner who was another research mentor for me in this topic as I joined his research group that was currently researching Pulsar Scintillation. I found my mentor through continuous meetings about what classes would best fit me in my academic career and my wish to pursue graduate school after completing my Bachelor’s degree. I learned much about my research topic, which was titled “The Scintillation of Pulsar J0332+5434 and the Implications on the Interstellar Medium”, mainly more about pulsars and their radio emission mechanisms. I also learned much about what is contained in the ISM, free electrons and plasma regions, and how they can interact with and impact a radio signal transmitted by a pulsar and received by a radio telescope. I also learned much about how to navigate remote observation requesting software as well as python coded suites to analyze the data from each observation. My faculty mentor helped with keeping me on track with my research observation planned timeline as well as informing me of funding opportunities like the Honors Research Grant and helping me obtain such funding. She also was in communication with Dr. Jacob Turner and they both helped me in understanding what the data from each observation meant about the ISM and how I could learn to understand that myself through data analysis.

For this research, I did attend the Conference for Undergraduate Women and Gender Minorities in Physics hosted at the University of Alabama this past January, I was able to present a poster presentation on the research I had been conducting and was also able to learn more about different research being conducted in the Physics field as well as the importance of radio astronomy in other astronomical research pursuits. With my connection to the Green Bank Observatory from the summer camp, which was hosted by Dr. Maura McLaughlin and Sue Ann Heatherly, I interacted heavily with Dr. Maura McLaughlin with my research and also other pursuits. This connection to Dr. Maura McLaughlin helped heavily with my graduate school applications for West Virginia University as she is the department chair for the Physics and Astronomy department at West Virginia University, I was ultimately accepted into the PhD program and will be attending graduate school there this fall in Morgantown, West Virginia. Go Mountaineers!