Tyler Barna

Tyler Barna

PhD Astrophysics

Professional Bio

As an undergraduate, I developed a strong interest in observational astronomy. At Princeton, I worked with Dr Melinda Soares-Furtado, then a PhD candidate, compiling a catalog of periodic variables in open clusters from Kepler K2 observations. Following that, I worked with Professor Saurabh Jha at Rutgers University on a senior honors thesis fitting the early time lightcurves of Type Ia supernovae from TESS data to search for potential companion emission. After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Astrophysics at Rutgers University in Spring of 2021, I joined the Astrophysics PhD program at UMN. Since starting at UMN, I've worked with Professor Michael Coughlin to develop a pipeline to automate ZTF follow-up observations of potential companions to gravitational wave sources detected by LIGO. The DSMMA program will empower me to approach my research with Professor Coughlin from a multidisciplinary perspective and ultimately improve as a scientist.

Personal Bio

I spent the bulk of my childhood in a New Jersey suburb near Philadelphia and aspired to study astronomy from an early age; after graduating high school, I began my undergraduate degree at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, where I was a member of the Honors College. Moving to Minnesota has been the first time I’ve lived outside of New Jersey, and I’ve enjoyed discovering more about the Twin Cities in the time I’ve been here. In my spare time, I enjoy cooking, collecting records, watching films, playing the guitar, and reading.