Dr. Anca Constantin received her Ph.D. from Ohio University. She then moved on to a postdoc position at Drexel University followed by two years at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. She joined the faculty of the Physics & Astronomy Department at JMU in the Fall of 2009. Dr. Constantin explores galaxy centers using observations acquired from major observatories on the ground as well as in space, including the Hubble and the Chandra X-ray space telescopes. She is developing new methods to examine how super-massive black holes grow in galaxy centers and to understand their co-evolution with their hosts.
Dr. Harold Butner received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Butner is a radio astronomer who works in the submillimeter range. He was a Carnegie Fellow at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism Carnegie Institution in Washington D.C. From there he held a position at Stewart Observatory in Arizona and, after that, at the Joint Astronomy Center in Hawaii. He is interested in using submillimeter observations to learn more about the process of star formation.
Dr. Keigo Fukumura's research expertise is theoretical high-energy X-ray astrophysics by utilizing the general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) formalism. His main interest is physics of compact objects particularly focusing on various energetic phenomena produced by magnetized gas (plasma) near accretion disks under strong gravity of central black holes. By constructing theoretical models he has been investigating the physical properties of accreting plasma as well as outflows including their geometry and observational signatures that can in principle be detected in UV/X-ray spectroscopic band. His research is relevant for both galactic black hole binaries (i.e. small black holes) in our Milky Way Galaxy as well as active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at the center of many luminous galaxies (i.e. supermassive black holes) beyond our own Milky Way.
Dr. Sean Scully received his Ph.D. in Astrophysics in 1997 from the University of Minnesota. He had a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute d'Astrophysique de Paris and an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship (NRC) at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. Prior to coming to JMU he was a visiting assistant professor at Valparaiso University. He joined the faculty at JMU in the Fall of 2004. His research focuses on astroparticle and early universe physics. Dr. Scully is most interested in using high energy cosmic rays, gamma-rays, and neutrinos along with the cosmic microwave background to try and place constraints on fundamental physics.
