Physics and Astronomy Professor Receives Research Grant

Dr. Kurtis Williams, associate professor of physics and astronomy at A&M-Commerce, received a $273,424 grant from the National Science Foundation to fund his study titled, “Using a Large Sample of White Dwarf Stars to Study Stellar Evolution.” According to the project abstract, “A research group at Texas A&M University-Commerce will carry out a program to use data from the Gaia space mission combined with observations from ground-based telescopes to double the sample of known WDs in young open clusters, or groupings of a few thousand stars of about the same age. These scientists will use this large sample of WDs to address several open questions in a range of astrophysical areas….” Among its benefits, the project will open research opportunities to undergraduate students at A&M-Commerce.