Knicole
D. Colón
Ph.D.
Candidate
Dept. of Astronomy
University
of Florida
Contact
Information
Department
of Astronomy
University of Florida
211
Bryant Space Science Center
PO Box 112055 Gainesville, FL
32611-2055
Office: 309
Phone: (352) 294-1852
Email:
knicole(at)astro.ufl.edu
Education
Ph.D.
Astronomy, University of Florida, expected completion 2012
M.S.
Astronomy, University of Florida, 2009
B.S. Physics, The College
of New Jersey,
2007
Awards
Young
Explorers Grant from the National Geographic Society's Committee
for Research and Exploration, 2010-2011
Lewis
and Clark Fund for Exploration and Field Research in Astrobiology,
2010-2011
NSF Graduate Research Fellow, 2009-2012
UF
Alumni Fellow, 2007-2009
Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowship
Honorable Mention, 2007-2008
Research
Interests
Detection
and Characterization of Extrasolar Planets (Exoplanets)
Transiting
Exoplanets
Exoplanet Atmospheres
Narrow-Band
Photometry
Research
Experience
2007
– Present: University of Florida (advisor: Eric B. Ford)
2006:
The College of New Jersey (advisor: Raymond J. Pfeiffer)
2006: NSF
REU at Arecibo Observatory (advisor: Mayra Lebron)
2005: NSF REU
at Lehigh University (advisor: Michael Stavola)
Observing
Facilities Used
10.4-meter
Gran Telescopio Canarias (Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos),
May/Jun/Aug/Nov 2009, Jan/Mar/Apr/May/Jun/Jul/Aug/Sep/Oct/Nov 2010, Feb/Apr/Jun 2011
(note: all observations were completed in queue observing
mode except those in Jun 2011, which were completed in classical visitor mode)
6.5-meter Magellan (Baade) Telescope (Las Campanas
Observatory), Feb 2010
30-inch University of Florida Telescope
(Rosemary Hill Observatory), Jun/Sep 2009, Jan 2010
Refereed
Publications
''Probing
Potassium in the Atmosphere of HD 80606b with Tunable Filter Transit
Spectrophotometry from the Gran Telescopio Canarias''
Colón,
Ford, Redfield, Fortney, Shabram, Deeg & Mahadevan, submitted to
MNRAS (2010)
(Link
to paper)
''Ground-Based
Multisite Observations of Two Transits of HD 80606b''
Shporer,
Winn, Dreizler, Colón & 40 coauthors, ApJ, 722, 880
(2010)
(Link
to paper)
''Characterizing
Transiting Extrasolar Planets with Narrow-Band Photometry and
GTC/OSIRIS''
Colón, Ford, Lee, Mahadevan & Blake, MNRAS, 408, 1494 (2010)
(Link
to paper)
''The
Transit Ingress and the Tilted Orbit of the Extraordinarily Eccentric
Exoplanet HD 80606b''
Winn, Howard, Johnson, Marcy, Gazak,
Starkey, Ford, Colón & 13 coauthors, ApJ, 703, 2091
(2009)
(Link
to paper)
''Benefits
of Ground-Based Photometric Follow-Up for Transiting Extrasolar
Planets Discovered with Kepler and CoRoT''
Colón
&
Ford, ApJ, 703, 1086 (2009)
(Link
to paper)
Posters
ExoClimes
2010: Exploring the Diversity of Planetary Atmospheres, September
2010
UCF Winter Workshop 2010: Exoplanets for Planetary
Scientists, January 2010
ESO-CAUP Workshop on: Towards Other
Earths, perspectives and limitations in the ELT era, October
2009
STScI Symposium: The Search for Life in the Universe, May
2009
209th
Meeting
of the American Astronomical Society, January 2007
In
the News
On
observations of the transit of HD 80606b made with the 30-inch UF
telescope at Rosemary Hill
Observatory:
http://news.ufl.edu/2009/09/28/fla-telescope/
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20090929/articles/909291012?Title=Tiny-telescope-big-observations
On
the implementation of a new technique to study transiting extrasolar
planets with the 10.4-meter Gran Telescopio
Canarias:
http://news.ufl.edu/2010/06/24/gtc-planet/
http://www.iac.es/divulgacion.php?op1=16&id=636&lang=en
On
observations of the atmosphere of HD 80606b made with the 10.4-meter
Gran Telescopio
Canarias:
http://news.ufl.edu/2010/08/31/potassium-planet/
http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/research/title,97575,en.html
Last
updated: July 11, 2011
Created by: Knicole D. Colón