Kim Katris McLeod
(on the left, a long time ago; a more recent picture is here)
Wellesley CollegeWellesley, MA 02481(781)283-2709kmcleod-(at)-wellesley.edu
Map of research papers
(Generated at ADS 2024)
Life history, in reverse
I've been on the faculty at Wellesley College since 1997, and in 2019 became the Director of the beautiful Whitin Observatory where Astronomy is for Everybody.
I spent some time as a Radcliffe Institute Fellow.
I used to be an astrophysics postdoc at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (where I have also spent some sabbaticals).
Before that, I was a lowly astronomy grad student at Steward Observatory (University of Arizona) where I did my Ph.D. under George Rieke.
I spent my undergraduate years as a physics major at Cornell University, where the weather gods granted me many happy nights of observing with the Fuertes Observatory 12" refractor -- here's photographic proof. I also worked under Jim Houck to build the first CCD camera that was used on the Hartung Boothroyd Telescope.
And way back when, I got my start as a true blue Delawarean. I did a lot of this (ending here).
Other interests
Playing mandolin and listening to lots of music
Kung Fu (1st degree black belt 2019, 2nd degree black belt 2021, 3rd degree 2024, instructor 2022)
biking to work
occasionally being upside down.
once upon a time I was a juggler.
I have also coached youth gymnastics, track, basketball, and soccer.
Being outside--Needham forecast, satellite loop, radar loop, ClearSky
Astronomy ;-) And I still love APOD, even nonastronomical ones like this
Current research interests
Exoplanet transit measurements
I am a member of the TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) FOP (Follow-up Observing Program). My students and I use our beautiful PlaneWave CDK700 to vet TESS candidates.
Previously we were KFUN collaborators on the very neat KELT project. On the KELT-18b discovery paper I'm not just an 'et al.'!
I've been at this a while. For fun I made my first exoplanet transit observation way back in 2001 after the first one had been discovered.
Galaxies with supermassive central black holes. I used some of the world's finest telescopes including the Hubble Space Telescope, Magellan and Gemini North, to investigate the host galaxies of quasars in the near-IR. One early paper helped to usher in the black hole-bulge relation. A 2009 ApJ paper described the most distant ones.
Disks and giant planets around young stars and brown dwarfs. I have used the Hubble Space Telescope to look for them. We think we found a planetary mass object in the Taurus star-forming region ( 2010 ApJ Letter), and also a Taurus brown dwarf disk (2007 Ap J paper). And here is a 2014 ApJ paper reporting on the bigger search.
Near Earth Objects (NEOs). Here's a 2015 Planetary and Space Science paper that quantifies why we need to act quickly after discovery if we want to measure NEO properties.
Former undergraduate research students
(does not include lots of great paid student observers; list in rough chronological order)
Rob Simcoe Alice Shapley Carrie Ryan Sonya Rhee Erin (Condy) Elliot Alceste Bonanos Carie Cardamone Lindsey (Deremer) Keeney Naomi Goldenson Frannie D'Arcanegelo Melissa Rice Emily Bowsher Rebecca Stoll Shelby Kimmel Talia Sepersky Amanda Zangari Erin Martell Allison Youngblood Jaclyn Payne Steven Mohammed Ijeoma Ekeh Matt Grossman Lynn Geiger Helen Ressler Kerry Klemmer Amy Tulay Guth Kirsten Blancato Anna Payne Kerrin Arnold Ashley Iguina Rose Gibson Anicia Arredondo Ale Escamilla Elif Samanci Derrick Carr Jenny Gubner Casey Melton Genevieve Markees Nicole Ford Leafia Sheraden_Cox Chloe Shi Alex Granados Nora Hoch Fiona Powers Ozyurt Hannah Stickler Savannah Cary Naunet Leonhardes-Barboza Samantha Morrison Emma Kotar Ceiligh Cacho-Negrete Treya Pember (and lots of others who have served as observers on my TeamTESS)