Ernesto Benitez

... is graduating with a double-major in Astronomy and Physics. He has two first-author papers that have been accepted for publication:

• "Investigating the I-Love-Q and w-mode Universal Relations Using Piecewise Polytropes" which will be published in Physical Review D with Dr. Cole Miller.
• "Analysis of Lightcurves to Find the Rotation Periods of Three Asteroids" which will be published in The Minor Planet Bulletin with Dr. Melissa Hayes-Gehrke.

Emma Mirizio

... is graduating with a degree in Physics with High Honors and a degree in Astronomy with High Honors. Her Honors thesis is titled: Multi-Method Investigation of Small-Mass Meteors Using Optical, Radar, and Spectral Observations. She received the following awards and honors:

• Maryland Space Grant Scholarship 2019 and 2020
• John Mather Nobel Scholar Award
• Design, Cultures, and Creativity Honors College Citation
• Sally Ride Intern Award

Claire Mytelka

... is graduating with a degree in Astronomy. She received the following awards and honors:

• Dean's Scholarship
• College Park Scholars Citation

Ben Hord

...is receiving a master's degree in Astronomy. He began his career in Astronomy at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC before attending Columbia University where he received degrees in Astrophysics and History. His second year project was titled "Lonely No More? A Uniform Search for Nearby Planetary Companions to Hot Jupiters Using TESS Data." He's continuing with the PhD program, performing his thesis work on hot Jupiters at NASA Goddard.

Pradip Gatkine

... is receiving a PhD degree in Astronomy. He started his journey at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, where he received his B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering with Honors and a minor in Physics. He then switched gears and started as a UMD Astronomy graduate student in 2014. He received an MS in Astronomy in 2016 and defended his doctoral thesis in July 2020. His thesis was titled: "From Nanometers to Light Years: Exploration of the Early Universe with GRBs and Development of Photonics Spectrographs". His notable awards and honors include:

• NASA Earth & Space Science Fellowship
• Board of Visitors Outstanding Graduate Student Award, UMD
• Andrew S. Wilson Prize for Excellence in Research, UMD Astronomy
• SPIE Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship
• John Chi-Lin Wang Award for Academic Excellence, UMD Astronomy
• Rodger Doxsey Dissertation Travel Award, American Astronomical Society
• Best Student Presentation award at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation

He is currently a David & Ellen Lee Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech.