Students and faculty part of the Elon astronomy program attend professional meeting with regional astronomers
The North Carolina Astronomers Meeting (NCAM) is an annual meeting for students and faculty to share research findings. Hosted at Guilford Technical Community College, NCAM brings in around 50-75 attendees a year, complete with a plenary speaker from an external institution.
This year, the Elon University astrophysics and astronomy majors, along with faculty, attended NCAM as a group to gain an understanding of the field outside of the classroom. The strong attendance from Elon represents a fast-growing astronomy program within the Physics Department where students are interested in exploring research in the discipline.
In particular, Jordan Wels ’24 presented the results of his Lumen Prize research by giving an oral presentation concerning elusive intermediate-mass black holes hidden in dwarf galaxies. Next year, NCAM will be sanctioned by the National American Astronomical Society, which aims to invite even more attendees from out of state.