PhD Thesis (PDF) - Department of Astronomy - University of Virginia

her room (my apologies to her officemates, Alex Constandache and Poonam Chandra).
Having a second expert in X-ray binaries in our research group tremendously honed
my scientific knowledge and goals. Plus, she was also always there to talk through
topics outside of science. Without the constant help of Ed Murphy, I would never
have been able to strongly pursue my interest in education and public outreach. Our
field needs more scientists and educators like Ed.
I would like to thank all the postdocs and long-term visitors that have made their
way through the X-ray group; Liz Blanton, Tracy Clarke, Yutaka Fujita, Molly Hicks,
Adrienne Juett, Thomas Reiprich, and Motokazu Takizawa. They were always there
to help me and provide proof that there was light at the end of the tunnel.
We have an incredible staff in this department. University life always requires
navigating the University bureaucracy and without Virginia Bossong, Jackie Harding,
or Barbara Johnson, I would never have made my way through it. Jim Barr and
Charles Lam were always there to help repair things, whether for work (e.g., numerous
power supplies for my UPS) or personal. Given the technical nature of astronomy,
it goes without saying that system administrators like Andrew Markwick-Kemper,
Howard Powell, and Kiriaki Xiluri were indispensable.
Now on to the all-important acknowledgments of graduate students and my other
Charlottesville friends. Without these people, I would never have made it through
with even the little shred of sanity I have left. Life here is so intertwined that many of
them should be thanked in multiple places. Rather than kill more trees, I am going
to thank them once and let them figure out where else in these acknowledgments
they belong. Doing this somewhat temporally, I’d like to thank: Josh Kempner
for providing a lot of guidance with regards to Charlottesville, computing, and X-
ray astronomy; Jeff Crane for being one of my early department role models (of
vii