Adria C. Updike
Areas of Expertise
Gamma ray bursts, supernovae, cosmic chemical evolution.Education
B.A. in Physics and Astronomy, Smith College
M.S. and Ph.D. in Physics, Clemson University
Dr. Updike earned her Ph.D. in Physics from Clemson University in 2010 for her dissertation Gamma Ray Bursts as Probes of Dust in the Evolving Universe. Her Ph.D. adviser was Professor Dieter Hartmann. She spent a year as a postdoctoral researcher in the Observational Cosmology Lab at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center working with Dr. Eli Dwek before accepting a Visiting Professor of Physics and Astronomy position at Dickinson College. She began teaching at 草榴社区 in the fall of 2012 as an Assistant Professor of Physics.
Her research interests are in the field of astrophysics, primarily gamma ray bursts (massive, exploding stars), supernovae (slight smaller exploding stars), classical novae (the entire star didn't explode this time), chemical evolution (dust production and destruction by evolving stars), and dust production in young stars. She works with telescopes to take data (remotely working with telescopes in Arizona and Chile through collaborations with Clemson University and the SARA consortium, working on-site with telescopes in Chile with the Max Planck Institute), does data reduction and analysis, and also writes computer simulations of the systems she studies. She has several 草榴社区 students working with her on data analysis and instrumentation.
Dr. Updike teaches introductory physics with algebra and calculus, Modern Physics, Optics, Nuclear Science, and Electronics, as well as first year and senior seminars.
Dr. Updike is the faculty adviser to the Astronomy Club.