Rama Chakrabarti Earth and Planetary Sciences

Cullen Blake (Astronomy)

Research Interests:

• Detection and characterization of terrestrial planets orbiting small stars
• Studies of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs
• Studies of binary stars and eclipsing binaries
• Robotic instrumentation for photometric follow-up in the near infrared and optical
• Massive variability surveys and the search for transient astrophysical phenomena

Publications:

1. “The Rapidly Flaring Afterglow of the Very Bright and Energetic GRB 070125,” Updike, A. C., Haislip, J.B., Nysewander, M.C., Fruchter, A.S., Kann, A.D., Klose, S., Milne, P.A., Williams, G.G., Zheng, W., Hergenrother, C.W., Prochaska, J.X., Halpern, J.P., Mirabal, N., Thorstensen, J.R., van der Horst, A.J., Starling, R.L.C., Racusin, J.L., Burrows, D.N., Kuin, N. P. M., Roming, P.W. A., Bellm, E., Hurley, K., Li, W., Filippenko, A.V., Blake, C.H., Starr, D., Falco, E.E., Brown, W.R., Dai, X., Deng, J., Xin, L., Qiu, Y., Wei, J., Urata, Y., Nanni, D., Maiorano, E., Palazzi, E., Greco, G., Bartolini, C., Guarnieri, A., Piccioni, A., Pizzichini, G., Terra, F., Misra, K., Bhatt, B.C., Anupama, G. C., Fan, X., Jiang, L., Wijers, R.A.M.J., Reichart, D.E., Eid, H.A., Bryngelson, G., Puls, J., Goldthwaite, R.C., & Hartmann, D.H. 2008, ApJ , 685, 361
2. “T-Lyr-17236: A Long-period Low-mass Eclipsing Binary,” Devor, J., Charbonneau, D., Torres, G., Blake, C.H., White, R.J., Rabus, M., O’Donovan, F.T., Mandushev, G., Bakos, G., Furesz, G., & Szentgyorgyi, A. 2008, ApJ (accepted; arXiv:0807.3746)
3. “A Spectroscopic Binary at the M/L Transition,” Blake, C.H., Charbonneau, D., White, R., Torres, G., Marley, M., & Saumon, D. 2008, ApJL, 678, 125L
4. “A New Low-mass Eclipsing Binary from SDSS-II,” Blake, C.H., Torres, G., Bloom, J.S., & Gaudi, B.S. 2008, ApJ, 684, 635
5. “The Troublesome Broadband Evolution of GRB 061126: Does a Grey Burst Imply Grey Dust?” Perley, D.A., Bloom, J.S., Butler, N.R., Pollack, L.K., Holtzmn, J., Blake, C.H., Kocevski, D., Vestrand, W.T., Li, W., Foley, R.J., Bellm, E., Chen, H.-W., Prochaksi, J.X., Starr, D., Filippenko, A.V., Falco, E.E., Szentgyorgyi, A.H., Wren, J., Wozniak, P.R., White, R., & Pergande, J. 2008, ApJ, 672, 449
6. “Discovery of a Very Bright, Nearby Gravitational Microlensing Event,” Gaudi, B.S., Patterson, J., Spiegel, D.A., Krajci, T., Koff, R., Pojmanski, G., Dong, S., Gould, A., Prieto, J.L., Blake, C.H., Roming, P.W.A., Bennett, D.P., Bloom, J.S., Boyd, D., Eyler, M.E., de Ponthiere, P., Mirabal, N., Morgan, C.W., Remillard, R.R., Vanmuster, T., Wagner, M.R., & Watson, L.C. 2008, ApJ, 677, 1268
7. “Near Infrared Monitoring of Ultracool Dwarfs: Prospects for Searching for Transiting Companions,” Blake, C. H., Bloom, J.S., Latham, D., Szentgyorgyi, A., Skrutskie, M., Falco, E., & Starr, D. 2007, PASP, 120, 860
8. “Type 1a Supernovae are Good Standard Candles in the Near Infrared: Evidence from PAIRITEL,” Wood-Vasey, W.M., Friedman, A.S., Bloom, J.S., Hicken, M., Modjaz, M., Kirshner, R.P., Starr, D.L., Blake, C.H., Falco, E.E., Szentgyorgyi, A., Challis, P., Blondin, S., & Rest, A. 2007, ApJ (accepted; arXiv:0711.2068)
9. “Near-Infrared Interferometric, Spectroscopic, and Photometric Monitoring of T Tauri Inner Disks,” Eisner, J.A., Hillenbrand, L., White, R., Bloom, J.S., Akerson, R.L., & Blake, C.H. 2007, ApJ, 669, 1072
10. “Multicolor Infrared Observations of SN 2006aj: The Supernova Associated with XRF 060218,” Kocevski, D., Modjaz, M., Bloom, J.S., Foley, R., Starr, D., Blake, C.H., Falco, E.E., Butler, N.R., Skrutskie, M., & Szentgyorgyi, A. 2007, ApJ, 663, 1180
11. “A Putative Early-Type Host Galaxy for GRB 060502B: Implications for the Progenitors of Short-Duration Hard-Spectrum Bursts,” Bloom, J.S., Perley, D., Chen, H., Butler, N., Prochaska, J., Kocevski, D., Blake, C.H., Szentgyorgyi, A., Falco, E., & Starr, D.L. 2007, ApJ, 654, 878
12. “What Can the Cosmic Microwave Background Tell Us About the Outer Solar System?” Babich, D., Blake, C.H., & Steinhardt, C. 2007, ApJ, 669, 1406
13. “Multiepoch Radial Velocity Observations of L Dwarfs,” Blake, C.H., Charbonneau, D. White, R. J., Marley, M.S., & Saumon, D. 2007, ApJ, 666, 1198

Presentations:

1. “Hunting for Planets in the Near Infrared,” 2008, Blake, C.H., Charbonneau, D., & Latham, D.L. presented at Cool Stars 15, St. Andrews, Scotland
2. “The PAIRITEL Ultracool Dwarf Transit Survey,” 2007, Blake, C.H., Latham, D.W., & Bloom, J.S. presented at Transiting Extrasolar Planets Workshop, Cambridge, Massachusetts
3. “A Radial Velocity Survey for Exoplanets Orbiting L-dwarf Stars,” 2007, Charbonneau, D., Blake, C.H., White, R.J., & Marley, M.S. presented at American Astronomical Society Meeting 210, Honolulu, Hawaii 

Paul Bracher (Chemistry and Chemical Biology)

Publications:

1. Bracher, P.J.; Gupta, M.; Whitesides, G.M.  "Shaped Films of Ionotropic Hydrogels Fabricated Using Templates of Patterned Paper." Adv. Mater.  2008, published on WWW (Wiley-VCH Early View, November 2008).
2. Dickey, M.D.; Lipomi, D.J.; Bracher, P.J.; Whitesides, G.M. "Electrically Addressable Parallel Nanowires with 30 nm Spacing from Micromolding and Nanoskiving."  Nano Lett.  2008, published on WWW (ACS ASAP, October 2008).
3. Winkleman, A.; Bracher, P.J.; Gitlin, I.; Whitesides, G.M. "Fabrication and Manipulation of Ionotropic Hydrogels Cross-Linked by Paramagnetic Ions."  Chem. Mater.  2007, 19, 1362-1368.

Raphael Brucker (Molecular Biology)

Research:

Research: RNA polymerase ribozyme selection; monodisperse vesicle production; clonal expansion of vesiclar populations

Publication:

1. Bruckner RJ, Mansy SS, Ricardo A, Mahadevan L and Szostak JW. Flip-flop induced relaxation of the bending energy in synthetic and biological membranes.  in preparation.

Itay Halevy (Earth and Planetary Sciences)

Publications:

1. I. Halevy and S. T. Stewart. Is Enceladus' plume dynamically controlled? Geophysical Research Letters, 35(12):L12203, 2008.
2. I. Halevy, M. T. Zuber and D. P. Schrag. An SO2 climate feedback on early Mars. Science, 318(5858):1903{1907, 2007.