I didn’t want to post about this until I knew for sure that it would work out, but I’ve recently confirmed that I’ll be attending the “Intermediate Mass Stars <–> Massive Stars” meting in Strasbourg France on the 9th-11th of February! It looks to be a very interesting meeting on the different approaches used in modeling these types of stars, and I’ll be giving a talk on modeling red supergiants. I’ll also be looking forward to discussions of massive star modeling as a whole, and how it fits in with the work I’ve been doing more recently on stellar population synthesis models. It should be a very enjoyable meeting! (also thanks very much to the organizing committee for their generosity in giving me a talk slot and some funding towards my flight and lodging!)

It’s been a while since I’ve updated things around here, so I’ve finally taken care of it. The website now has an updated CV and publication list, new contact information reflecting my location as an SAO predoc, and my home page now reports that I’m a third-year rather than a second-year. Good thing that’s been cleared up!

My thesis research has been going really well so far – clear nights, working model programs, and papers in prep! I had a very enjoyable fall semester, particularly at the massive star meetings in Flagstaff and Pasadena where I learned a lot and enjoyed meeting lots of people in the field! Finally, I had my first thesis committee meeting in November, and we discussed my general timeline for my thesis work. At the risk of jinxing it by writing it here, if all continues to go according to plan it looks like I’ll be able to stick to my original timeline of finishing – the word every grad student loves to hear – in another year and a half!

I’ll likely be spending most of the upcoming semester working hard on my thesis, but will be looking ahead to some meetings this summer soon enough!