Dr. Joseph Hennawi is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at the University of California-Berkeley. Dr. Hennawi will utilize his sample of high-redshift quasar pairs with small sub-arcminute sightlines to (1) probe the intergalactic medium on scales of tens of kiloparsecs, (2) detect and use the transverse proximity effect to provide measurements of the emission geometry and radiative histories of quasars, (3) study the fluorescent glow of absorption-line systems illuminated by quasars and (4) use a quasar's ionizing flux to discern the distribution of gas in high-redshift galaxies.
Dr. Hennawi will also join forces with the faculty, staff, and students at Hartnell Community College to deliver an inquiry-based astronomy curriculum to socio-economically disadvantaged elementary-school students in the Salinas Valley of California who are not currently receiving any science instruction. The program aims to communicate astronomy and astrophysics, the thrill of discovery and aspects of the proposed research to an underrepresented group of elementary-school, high-school, and community-college students, as well as to the general public.
