Hello! My name is Bryanne McDonough and I am a fifth-year graduate student in the Department of Astronomy at Boston University.
A little about me: I was born and raised in western Massachusetts and then ventured out to Rochester, New York. At Rochester Institute of Technology I obtained my Bachelor’s degree cum laude in Physics with minors in Astronomy and Mathematics in May 2018. I was a member of the honors program and Sigma Pi Sigma, the physics honor society. In the spring of 2018, I was awarded the John Wiley Jones Award for Outstanding Students in Science and named a Physics Undergraduate Research Scholar.
My main research interests lie in computational astrophysics and what we can learn from comparing the results of cosmological simulations to observations. I am interested in galaxy evolution, particularly how star formation can be influenced by feedback and external factors.
Currently, I work with Dr. Tereasa Brainerd with data from the IllustrisTNG Simulation, a large simulation of galaxy formation. My latest published results regard the distribution of satellite galaxies and dark matter. I am currently working on spatially-resolved star formation rates in an effort to constrain feedback models in the TNG simulation.
I am also very passionate about teaching astronomy and physics. I want to make science education accessible to everyone using research-backed methods. To do so, I use and advocate for Universal Design for Learning (UDL). In 2022, I served as a UDL consultant for BU’s Center for Teaching and Learning.
Background Image Credit: Illustris Simulation