Stellar spectroscopy and nucleosynthesis, astronomical instrumentation, galactic chemical evolution and the early universe
Biography
Kim A. Venn is a Professor in Physics & Astronomy at the University of Victoria. She was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, receiving her BSc from the University of Toronto in Physics & Astronomy in 1987. She completed her PhD at the University of Texas in Austin, and postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and the University of Munich Observatory, Germany. She is internationally recognized for her pioneering contributions in observational stellar spectroscopy and for ground-based astronomical instrumentation and surveys. Her scientific interests include the structure and evolution of dwarf galaxies and observational constraints on the nucleosynthesis of the elements, including over 250 publications (half in the refereed journals). She has served on numerous science advisory committees, chaired time allocation (e.g., HST, CanTAC) and granting agencies committees (NASA, NSF and NSERC), and currently represents Canada on the Thirty Meter Telescope Board of governors.
NTCO & Awards
Prof. Venn is the Director of the UVic Astronomy Research Centre, and Program Director for an NSERC CREATE training program on New Technologies for Canadian Observatories (NTCO). She has won numerous awards for her research including the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (NSF 2000), a Clare Boothe Luce Professorship at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN (1995-2005), a Canadian Research Chair in Observational Astrophysics (Tier II, 2005-2015), and she shared in a UVic REACH award for Excellence in Research Partnerships (2018).
Current Projects available for Students
Metal-poor stars in the Galactic Centre and dynamics for testing the MW potential.
Heavy elements in globular clusters with high frequencies of X-ray sources.
Machine learning techniques for large and small spectroscopic data sets.
GHOST spectroscopy; heavy elements in ultra faint dwarf galaxies.
Co-supervision of AO bench testing related to the Thirty Metre Telescope.
Current and Past Graduate Students
Tarun Kumar: PhD candidate (UVic)
Spencer Bialek: PhD candidate (UVic, MSc 2019)
Collin Kielty: PhD candidate (UVic, MSc 2017)
Farbod Jahandar: MSc 2018 (PhD candidate, UdM)
Dr. Masen Lamb: PhD 2017 (PDF, Dunlap Institute, Toronto)
Dr. Charli Sakari: PhD 2014 (PDF, U. Washington, Faculty SFSU)
Dr. Ryan Leaman: PhD 2012 (PDF, MPIA, Heidelberg)
Dr. Celia Blain: PhD 2012 (Mech Eng, UVic; Researcher NRC-HAA)
