Assistant Professor of Astronomy
University of North Georgia
Hello and welcome! I am an Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Observatory Director at the University of North Georgia in Dahlonega, Georgia, USA. My research is focused on the structure and evolution of low-mass stars, where low mass refers to stars with masses between 8% and 120% of the mass of our Sun. In particular, I am interested in whether magnetic fields or magnetic activity (such as starspots, seen below on the Sun) play a significant role in determining the observed properties of stars. To do this, I compare predictions from theoretical stellar models to observations of both single stars and stars in binary systems (specifically eclipsing binaries). You can read about this here.
My curriculum vitae.
08 Aug 2018
Team members Jessica Hamilton and Amanda Ash attended The 20th Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars,
Stellar Systems, and the Sun (Cool Stars 20)
with Dr. Feiden in Boston, MA. They presented posters highlighting their research investigating
how starspots affect the structural and observable properties of young cool stars. These results
will soon be submitted as three separate papers, so keep an eye out for them! In the meantime,
here are the posters:
Jessica's Poster: A Flexible Model for Investigating
Properties of Starspots: Model Characterization
Amanda's Poster: A Flexible Model for Investigating
Properties of Starspots: Comparison of Models to Observed Data
Dr. Feiden's Poster: A Flexible Model for Investigating
Properties of Starspots: Model Validation
13 Jul 2018
Congratulations to Maxwell Roberts, who will be starting as an undergraduate at Vassar College this
fall. Maxwell was a member of UNG's Stellar Evolution Research Group computing grids of magnetic
stellar evolution models. We're losing a great team member, but we're super exicited for Maxwell as
he begins a new adventure at Vassar! Keep an eye out for Maxwell's paper (coming soon to RNAAS).
16 Mar 2018
UNG's Stellar Evolution Research Group is hiring one UNG undergraduate to act as a full-time summer
resident observer at the North Georgia Astronomical Observatory during summer 2018. The position
is supported by a Georgia Space Grant Consortium research grant.
13 Mar 2018
UNG's Stellar Evolution Research Group is hiring one UNG undergraduate for summer 2018 to investigate how
starspots affect the properties of young, low-mass stars. The project is supported by a
Faculty-Undergraduate Summer Engagement
(FUSE)
award from UNG's Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities
(CURCA).
19 Dec 2018
Dr. Feiden is part of a team awarded a $430,000 Astrophysics Theory Grant by NASA to explore helium
concentrations in galactic globular clusters. UNG was awarded $60,000 to support a UNG undergraduate
researcher for each of the next 3 summers (2018 - 2020).
[Featured in the Dahlonega Nugget]
28 Nov 2017
Khian Skidmore is now a McNair Scholar! Khian, a junior physics major at UNG and member of UNG's stellar
evolution research group, was awarded a scholarship through UNG's Ronald E. McNair
Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program. Congratulations to Khian!
27 Oct 2017
Team members Jessica Hamilton, Max Roberts, Khian Skidmore, and Dr. Feiden attended
the Georgia Regional Astronomy Meeting (GRAM) at the University of Georgia. Jessica and
Max presented posters showing results of their research projects. Learn more about their
work on our research group page, or take a look at their posters,
which are archived on Zenodo:
Max's Poster: Decoding the Evolution of Young Stars:
A Look at Magnetic Fields
Jessica's Poster: Star spots and their impact on
observable stellar properties