The Department of Astronomy at The Ohio State University had four PhD candidates successfully defend their PhDs in the summer of 2018. All four secured prestigious post-graduate (postdoctoral) positions in the field of Astronomy.

Jon Brown, under the supervision of Professor of Astronomy and University Distinguished Scholar, Krzysztof Stanek, defended his thesis entitled "Surveying Transient Host Galaxies with ASAS-SN." Jon received a postdoctoral scholarship with Professor Ryan Foley at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Jamie Tayar, under the supervision of Professor of Astronomy and University Distinguished Scholar, Marc Pinsonneault, defended her thesis "Rotation in Red Giants." She received one of the most prestigious fellowships in Astronomy, the NASA Hubble Fellowship, which she will be taking at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. She is the tenth OSU PhD student to receive a Hubble Fellowship since its inception in 1990. 

Dan Stevens, under the supervision of Professor of Astronomy, Thomas Jefferson, Chair for Space Exploration, and University Distinguished Scholar, Scott Gaudi, defended his thesis entitled "Discovery and Characterization of Hot Stars and Their Cool, Transiting Companions." Dan received the Eberly Research Fellowship from Penn State. Dan is the first OSU PhD recipient of this fellowship, which encompasses the Eberly College of Science, including the Departments of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Biology, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, and Statistics. 

Steven Villanueva, Jr., under the joint supervision of: Professor of Astronomy, Thomas Jefferson, Chair for Space Exploration; University Distinguished Scholar, Scott Gaudi; and Professor of Astronomy and Vice Chair of Instrumentation, Richard Pogge; defended his thesis entitled "DEMONEXT: The DEdicated MONitor of EXotransits and Transients." Steven received the highly prestigious Pappalardo Fellowship in Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Department of Astronomy congratulates our four most recent PhD recipients and looks forward to following their future endeavors and achievements.