[phas-dept] Fwd: Graduate Studies in Astronomy at Texas A&M College Station

[Kurtis Williams]

FYI 
> 
> Dear colleague -- 
> 
> We would like to invite all qualified and interested undergraduate students in your program to apply for graduate studies in astrophysics and cosmology at Texas A&M University. We would ask that you please forward this message to them, and encourage them to contact any of us if they have questions or would like more information. They can also visit our website, http://mitchell.tamu.edu
> 
> Over the past decade, Texas A&M University has been building an energetic group in Astrophysics and we plan to continue expanding our faculty and research staff in the near future. Our research activities span a wide range of areas: supernovae and their application to cosmology, near-field cosmology, galaxy formation and evolution, astro-statistics, astro-particle physics, resolved stellar populations, extrasolar planets, and astronomical instrumentation, including efforts to establish an optical/near-infrared observatory in the Antarctic Plateau. Incoming graduate students are free to pursue research in any of these areas.
> 
> We are involved in many of the most ambitious astronomy programs of the current and next decade: the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), the Dark Energy Survey (DES), the Hobby Eberly Telescope Dark Energy eXperiment (HETDEX) and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). We use world-class telescopes to perform our observational studies: the Hubble, Spitzer & Chandra Space Telescopes as well as the Keck, VLT, Subaru, Gemini, Magellan, WIYN, LCOGT, Las Campanas and McDonald Observatories. We also have access to state-of-the art supercomputer facilities. Theoretical research in astro-particle physics and cosmology focuses on understanding the nature of dark matter and neutrinos. Students in the theory group benefit from close connections to strong research groups in high energy physics theory and experiment at Texas A&M. 
> 
> Presently, our graduate students pursue degrees in Physics with a concentration in Astronomy (6 out of the 9 required classes are core astronomy courses). We emphasize research from day one, with all incoming graduate students engaging in research activities with our faculty upon arrival.  We provide competitive support packages through merit- and diversity-based fellowships in addition to teaching and research assistantships. All students are members of the Department for Physics and Astronomy and the Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy; the latter provides additional resources to support student research activities.
> 
> We are committed to a diverse research group, and consider it our mission to enable world-class science and to foster a scientific literate society. We encourage applications from all individuals regardless of race, gender, age, ethnicity, ability, sexual preference, socioeconomic status, religion or culture.
> 
> We begin reviewing graduate school applications on December 15, 2014. Applications received by that date will benefit from full consideration for merit and diversity fellowships. Nevertheless, we will consider late applications until mid-February. Applicants may visit: http://apply.physics.tamu.edu for more information.     
> 
> Thank you for your time and we appreciate your help.
> 
> The Texas A&M Astronomy group
> Darren DePoy
> Kevin Krisciunas
> Lucas Macri
> Jennifer Marshall
> Casey Papovich
> Louis Strigari
> Nicholas Suntzeff
> Kim-Vy Tran
> Lifan Wang
>