Hello!
I'm Aleksandra, I am an undergraduate student at the University of Utah, pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Physics with an emphasis in Astronomy. Throughout my time at the UofU I have been able to dive deeper into my passion of astrophysics through a research project that explores wide binary systems and their chemical compositions through high-resolution spectra. I am mentored by Dr. Catherine Manea.
About Me
Participating in astronomy research as an undergraduate student has been very formative for me. It has further solidified my passion for physics and astronomy while also giving me a multitude of new skills that I will carry forth throughout my academic career. I am in my senior year of my undergraduate degree, and hope to further my education by attending graduate school in the future.
Outside of academia, I own my own business where I mainly play and promote video games to an audience through streaming platforms and social media. I also give short astronomy talks to my audience as well. I have a lot of different hobbies, some of them being: snowboarding, reading, gaming, paddleboarding, and hiking. Before starting university, I was a professional ballerina and danced ballet for 13 years. I have a polydactyl cat named Willow and a rescued retired racing greyhound Bryn.
Research
High-Resolution Stellar Spectra of Wide Binary Systems
Currently, I am conducting research under the mentorship of Dr. Catherine Manea, an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Utah. Our work focuses on the study of wide binary star systems.
By analyzing high-resolution stellar spectra for each star in these pairs, we aim to study chemical signatures that provide insights into the history of the system and the environments they are formed from. These methods are part of a field often referred to as Galactic Archaeology.
Wide binaries form from the same molecular cloud so we generally expect the pair to be compositionally homogeneous. In particular, we have discovered a system where one star in the binary is greatly enhanced with lithium. We aim to explain the reasoning for this through several thorough tests.
Future Publications
New research findings and publications will be documented here as they become available.