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#WSGCStudentSpotlight

February 10, 2017


Charee Peters

Graduate Student
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Major: Astronomy
Minor: None

Charee Peters is this week’s #WSGCStudentSpotlight! She is currently completing her PhD in Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She plans to graduate in May 2018. She received her MA in Astronomy and Physics from the Fisk-Vanderbilt Masters-to-PhD Bridge Program in 2013, and her BS in Physics from the University of Denver in 2011. This week’s awardee is a recipient of the 2016 Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium Graduate & Professional Research Fellowship.

Charee conducts research with Dr. Eric Wilcots that focuses on understanding how the radio emission varies over time for different phenomena, including supernovae, active galactic nuclei, and tidal disruption events. To do her research, she utilizes the new COSMOS HI Large Extragalactic Survey (CHILES). CHILES is a neutral hydrogen 21-cm radio survey conducted at the Very Large Array, a radio astronomy observatory in New Mexico. Charee also conducted research at Fisk, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Vanderbilt, and the University of Denver since becoming an undergraduate. In 2011, Charee became the first person in her tribe, the Yankton Sioux, to obtain a degree in Physics. Since then, she joined the American Astronomical Society’s Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy as a Committee Member and delivered presentations on her research. Additionally, she tutors in Astronomy. In her free time, Charee plays roller derby with the Mad Rollin’ Dolls under the alias SiouxperNova #185.

Congratulations Charee, and keep up the good work!

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