Erin Cox
, CIERA, Northwestern University
Research Focus
About Erin
I study the earliest phase of star and planet formation (i.e., Class 0 objects). I am interested in understanding the flow of material from the inner protostellar envelope onto the disk. I’m also interested in better understanding the formation pathways of binary star systems, and how this affects the subsequent planets in the system. Binary stars are thought to have two formation pathways that can lead to either wide or close systems, however the two protostars can migrate early in their lives, thus affecting the surrounding material that will eventually make planets.
I use a multi-wavelength (from the VLA — cm waves — to ALMA — mm waves — to NIR telescopes) approach in researching these areas, including using polarization observations. Polarization observations are quite powerful because they provide useful information about the magnetic field and need to be highly sensitive so we obtain exquisite dust maps of our targets.
Honors
2022 - NSF MPS-Ascend Postdoctoral Fellowship
2019 - ALMA Ambassador
2019 - Robert L. Brown Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award
2018 - Rodger Doxsey Travel Prize
2015 - Illinois Space Grant
2014 - Excellent Teacher Award
2012 - Undergraduate Research Achievement Award
Education
Postdoc
CIERA, Northwestern University, 08/2018
Ph.D.
Astronomy, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, 08/2018
Bachelor's
Physics, Astronomy, University of Arizona, 05/2012
