June 19, 2013
My name is Allison Towner, and I am the University of Arizona
Astronomy Club President for the year 2012. I’m a Senior Physics and
Astronomy double-major, with a minor in Middle Eastern and North
African Studies. I work as a telescope operator for Steward’s 21″
Raymond White telescope located here on campus, and also as a grader
for some of the Astronomy Department’s NATS courses. I also work in
the Steward Observatory Radio Astronomy Lab (SORAL) for Dr.
Christopher Walker, working on several terahertz-receiver projects
(see http://soral.as.arizona.edu/
http://soral.as.arizona.edu/
currently conducting research on the inflow rate of gas from the
spiral arms of the Milky Way to the bulge through Clump 1 and Clump 2.
Finally, I am involved in both of the Astronomy Club’s research
projects (the transiting hot Jupiter TrES-3b and our radio Planck
Early Cold Core project).
Outside of astronomy, I enjoy hiking, photography, travel, reading
(just about anything, although at the moment I’m working through
classic and canonical sci-fi), and hapkido.