AST 424 -- Introduction to Astrophysical Research
2018-2019, Marten van Kerkwijk
Classes
Time: F3-5, starting Friday Sep 14th (i.e., not Sep 7th)
Place: AB 88
Part of research is to become/keep yourself up to date with the field.
Hence, in addition to the classes, you are required to attend the
departmental Colloquia, which are 1-hour talks by (mostly) outside
visitors (W3 in Cody Hall [AB 107]).
As a researcher, you are considered part of the department.
Please join for departmental coffee (starting about 10:30 every
morning in AB, 2nd floor lounge; on Mondays and Thursdays this
includes discussion of recent astronomy results) and other
events.
Lecturer
Prof. Marten van Kerkwijk
Office: MP 1203B, 416-946-7288
Email: mhvk@astro.utoronto.ca.
Course Description
In this introduction to astrophysical research, you will use what you
learned in the last years to study a current problem in astronomy,
under supervision of a faculty member. Specific goals are to:
- Study a current research topic, where the outcome is still unclear.
- Sharpen your ability to critically acquire information, from journal
articles and other sources.
- Learn to write scientific proposals and reports in LaTeX.
- Practice delivering scientific presentations.
Advisers
Students will identify and contact potential research advisers, and
should have chosen their superviser by the end of September. Any
research member of the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics
(DAA), Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA), or
Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics (Dunlap) can serve
as an adviser. In case a post-doctoral fellow or CITA visitor is an
adviser, a faculty member from DAA, CITA or Dunlap must be added as a
co-adviser. The course instructor will help match students to
advisers, but the most effective strategy is to meet in person with
potential advisers after preliminary e-mail contacts.
The following are good places to see/meet advisers
- DAA Jamboree, with 1-3 min talks by faculty members and students
(Friday, Sep. 21, 3-5 PM, Physics Lounge [MP 110]).
- CITA jamboree, with short talks by both postdocs and faculty
(Thursday Sep 27, 12-3 PM, Physics Lounge [MP 110]; includes free
food).
- DAA Coffee, every day, starting usually around 10:30 AM (AB, 2nd
floor lounge).
- Discussion of recent literature W, F, 10:30 AM sharp (i.e.,
at coffee time; W: AB, 2nd floor lounge; F: MP 1308A).
- Colloquium snack (AB, 2nd floor lounge; either before or after W3 colloquium)
- CITA dessert (F4, MP 14th floor lounge).
- In their offices.
Course requirements (in bold: used for evaluation)
- Find an adviser and a project. Ideally, the project should be
useful and interesting to both the student and the adviser. It
should consider a current topic, which may or may not directly
involve the superviser's current research. The student will
briefly (10 min) describe the plans for the project - as
consulted with the adviser - during class meetings (tentatively,
Oct 5 and Oct 12).
- Discuss goals and expectations for the project with your
adviser(s), and develop a study plan for the whole year. Plan
to meet with the adviser on a bi-weekly basis; see item 4
below.
- Write up a project proposal (2-3 pages; 15% of the
final mark) by Nov 16 (-7.5%/day for lateness, i.e., zero for
reports two or more days late). The proposal should be formatted
in LaTeX using the AASTex
package as this will give some practice for the final report.
The proposal should explain the background and motivation for the
project, and outline the literature you will study, in a compelling and
persuasive manner. A hardcopy of the proposal must be delivered
to the instructor and the adviser.
- Meet with your adviser(s) regularly, at least once per two weeks.
Good communication is the key to good research. Both you and your
adviser will enjoy these meetings a lot more if you have read new
papers and bring new questions each time.
- Short progress e-mails by the end of each month, starting
at the end of November (5% for five monthly
e-mails, CC'd to the adviser). The e-mails can just contain a
paragraph or two describing your activities and progress. No
points given for reports that are late.
- Class participation (5%) for discussions about
colloquia, attendance of classes with lectures by the instructor
and invited faculty members (e.g., how to give a scientific talk
and how to prepare a scientific paper).
- Discussion of a colloquium (10%) Any time between
October and early March. This should discuss a colloquium on a
topic related to yours, discussing both the science and the
quality of the presentation, in a way sufficiently interesting to
generate further discussion.
- Summary talk (15%) in the AST 424 Jamboree, likely
in the second half of March. These should be about 15 minutes
long and will be in-class (with the AST 425 students), with also
advisers expected to attend. The research should be presented in
a way sufficiently interesting to generate discussion.
- Final report (50%) by Thursday, April 4th,
(-12.5%/day for lateness, i.e., zero for reports four or more days
late). The report should be compose in LaTeX using
the AASTex package, with
the word
and figure constraints of an Astrophysical Journal
Letter. Evaluatation will be jointly by the
adviser and course instructor, and includes the amount of
progress made.
Links
For help on how to use LaTeX and
the AASTeX
package (normally used for preparing manuscripts for ApJ, AJ, and
PASP), check out
the documentation,
and then download the required files (on Debian and Ubuntu, these are
part of the texlive-publishers package).