Mentors

Current Mentors

We have an amazing group of graduate student mentors who go above and beyond to make this program a success! This list of mentors is sorted in order of their grad year, oldest to youngest.

Briana Wirag

she/her/hers

Heyo! I’m Bri, and I'm from Wisconsin, so yes I love cheese and yes it's too hot for me here. Graduating from UW-Madison, I primarily focused on astronomy and physics and supplemented that with math and environmental studies (I like school okay). My cozy indoor hobbies include all things crafty, reading, and playing video games while snuggling with my two cats. Since starting grad school I've also become a huge DnD nerd. I like to get out of my apartment by either playing softball, walking around parks in town, or thrifting.

I'm a fourth-year student working with Jonelle Walsh. Generally my research has fallen in the realm of galaxy evolution. I'm wrapping up a project characterizing global properties (stellar mass, dark matter content, etc.) of 16 massive early-type galaxies from the MASSIVE survey. My first project I worked with Justin Spilker studying SPT0311-58, a massive pair of dusty star-forming galaxies within the Epoch of Re-ionization. Now I'm shifting my focus to comparing black hole mass measurements determined via gas vs stars.

Bri's Website

Claire Bolda

she/her/hers

I am a fourth-year astronomy graduate student from Wisconsin, where I completed my BS in Physics *with an Astronomy Emphasis* at UW-Milwaukee. Aside from research, I love learning languages, spending time along the shores of Lake Michigan, and exploring new coffee shops wherever I go. Also, I am chronically ill and would be happy to answer any questions about navigating grad school with health issues :)

Currently, I am using JWST/NIRISS observations to probe the galaxy star-forming main sequence at low stellar masses in the early universe with Casey Papovich. My research interests include low-mass galaxies, interactions between galaxies and their environments, the reionization era, and collections of galaxies big and small. I am also particularly fond of the circumgalactic medium and pulsars, which I researched during my undergraduate degree.

Claire's Website

Aaron Hughes

he/him/his

Howdy! I’m Aaron and I’ll be a third-year graduate student this fall. Growing up, I split time between Colorado and Missouri, but for undergrad, I went to the University of Arizona. Outside of academics, I delight in many endeavors but particularly enjoy baseball, golf, pickleball, playing drums/bass, reading, hiking, and church youth ministry.

I work with Kevin Huffenberger and am a part of the ACT and Simons Observatory collaborations, which primarily focus on observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. Many galaxies are also picked up in these millimeter scans of the sky, and at high redshifts, these detected sources are often extreme star-forming galaxies in the early universe. I am currently analyzing follow up observations conducted with ALMA on the brightest of these high-redshift star forming galaxies. In doing so, I will hopefully shed some light on early galaxy formation, structure, and evolution of which recent observations have greatly challenged the theoretical predictions.

Aaron's Website

Grace Gouin

she/her/hers

Hi! I’m a third-year grad student from Massachusetts. I earned my B.A. in Astrophysics from Colby College, where I also played collegiate softball. Since beginning grad school, I have transitioned to playing in a local slow-pitch softball league and have picked up new hobbies, including pickleball, baking, reading, and exploring different cafes in the area :)

In the past, I’ve done a couple of NASA internships. One focused on simulations for the Roman Space Telescope (scheduled to launch later this year… hopefully!), and another studying the recurrent nova M31N 2008-12a with HST data. Since coming to TAMU, I’ve transitioned to working with Krista Smith on studying AGN feedback in the local universe.

Grace's Website

Holly Zeyl

she/her/hers

Hi! I'm a second year grad student originally from North Carolina. I did my undergrad at Florida State University and now I'm here, so I'm touring all the hottest, nastiest states in the US (jk TX and FL ily). Outside of work I like to run, garden, and break (er, DIY) things around my apartment. I have a wonderful black cat named Boat :)

I work with Dr. Krista Lynne Smith to understand the accretion disks of supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei. I'm currently exploring a few ways we could improve measurements of black hole spins, which are challenging to measure but have fascinating implications for black hole and galaxy evolution!

Holly's Website

Alex Geiger

he/him/his

My name is Alex, and I was born and raised in northeastern Wisconsin. I did my undergraduate in Physics & Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where, after graduating, I took one year to do a post-baccalaureate research position. As of the summer of 2026 I am married to my wife Morgan, and in my free time I enjoy spending time with her and friends, listening to music on my record player or playing music on the piano or guitar, and playing sports like golf, pickleball, and more!

Generally, I am interested in galaxy formation and evolution in the intermediate-to-high redshift Universe. Specifically, I study post-starburst galaxies and the processes that cause rapid quenching of star formation. I work with Dr. Justin Spilker -- and as part of the SQuIGGLE collaboration -- on ALMA observations of a sample of these post-starburst galaxies to investigate the recent discovery of unexpectedly high dust destruction in post-starburst and quiescent galaxies. In the past, I have worked with GBT neutral hydrogen observations of high-velocity clouds in the Milky Way, Hubble observations of extreme [Ne V] outflows in a post-starburst extremely red quasar, and the reduction pipeline on a new spectrograph aboard the Southern African Large Telescope. In the future, I hope to continue my research of post-starburst galaxies that I currently pursue with Dr. Spilker!

Alex's Website