Chelen Johnson
Detecting Brown Dwarfs in Interacting Cataclysmic Binaries: Using Spitzer Space Telescope infrared images to determine whether the companion of the remnant star EE Eri (a white dwarf) is in fact a very low-mass object (sometimes called 'failed star') known as a brown dwarf.
There was a connection for me, and I hope my students, between what at times can be very tedious number crunching and theoretical concepts to practical application of data towards discovery.
I found it most interesting to see the scientific process in action. Scientists were questioning scientists, sometimes fairly aggressively.
This experience has reinforced to me the importance of learning science by doing science.
