#WSGCStudentSpotlight
Graduate Student
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Major: Physics
Second Major: Applied Mathematics
Christopher Anderson is a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received a 2016 Graduate & Professional Research Fellowship for his research conducted during the summer. Christopher has been selected for this week’s #WSGCStudentSpotlight!
Christopher has been interested in Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity since reading The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene, his senior year of high school. WIth influences from his undergraduate advisor, he pursued a degree in Cosmology along with Physics. Christopher has received funding from WSGC to continue his studies through various projects. The current project that Mr. Anderson is currently working on is titled ‘Array Development and Data Analysis for 21 cm Intensity Mapping Experiments’. This project utilizes the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and the Parkes Telescope in Australia to map the distribution of neutral Hydrogen in the Universe on very large scales, using the 21 cm transition. These are early experiments in a burgeoning field that will help to constrain the parameters of dark matter and dark energy.
After Graduating from the University of California Berkeley with honors in 2009, Mr. Anderson worked at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. He assembled and maintained the vacuum chamber for a time of flight spectrometer. From 2010-2015, Christopher taught Physics courses including, Physics in the Arts and General Physics. He is also a published author! Some of his pieces include, ‘Dense Magnetized Plasma Associated with a Fast Radio Burst’ (Nature 2015) and “Developing a Focal Plane Array at the GBT for 21 cm Astronomy,” for the 22nd Annual Wisconsin Space Conference.
Congratulations, Christopher and good luck in future studies!
