Principal Investigator
Dr. Christopher Bennett
Assistant Professor, Department of Physics
Bio
CV
https://planets.ucf.edu/
https://sciencescosmaincms.cm.ucf.edu/physics/people/bennett-christopher/
E-mail: christopher.bennett@ucf.edu
Graduate Students
Amy LeBlue-DeBartola
4th Year Physics Major, Planetary Science Track
Joined Fall 2017
Projects:
• Formation of Biological Molecules in the Interstellar Medium, Comets & Icy Bodies
• Prebiotic Formation of Peptides in Meteorites & the Early Earth
• Hyperspectral Raman Mapping of Meteorites, Novel Techniques to Analyze Meteorites, Optical Properties of Meteorites & Simulants
Email: amye.lebleu@gmail.com or lebleu-debartola@knights.ucf.edu
Brian Ferrari
2nd Year Physics Major
Joined Spring 2016
Projects:
• Prediction of Optical Properties of Molecules by Ab Initio & DFT Calculations
• Measuring Electron Sputtering Desorption Yields from Icy Surfaces
•Irradiation of Astrophysically Relevant Ice Analogs
•Ionization & Fragmentation of Gas-Phase Species
Email: brian.ferrari [at] ucf.edu
Katie Slavicinska
2nd Year Physics Major, Planetary Science Track
Joined Fall 2019
Projects:
• Space Weathering of Airless Bodies
• Optical Properties of Meteorites & Simulants
• Role of Surfaces in Biopolymer Formation
• Measuring Electron Sputtering Desorption Yields from Icy Surfaces
Email: katerina.slavicinska [at] ucf.edu
Undergraduate Students
Sarah Swiersz
Remi Cantelas
Riley Havel
3rd Year Physics Major, Minor in Geosciences and Certificate in Geographic Information Systems
Joined Spring 2019
Projects:
• Design, machine, clean, and use ultra-high vacuum (UHV) chamber systems and sample holder pieces for space weathering of icy moon analogs
• Analyze affects of particle size distribution, reference material, and sample cup repacking on spectra of regolith simulants of airless bodies
• Utilize General Atomic and Molecular Electronic Structure System (GAMESS) and AutoGAMESS to calculate optimized geometries, vibrational frequencies, infrared intensities, and Raman activities of astrochemically relevant molecules
Past Students
Jonathan Thetford – Undergraduate
Michael Cintron – Undergraduate
Jonathan Sepulveda – Undergraduate
Katherine Taylor – Undergraduate
Francisco de Torres – Undergraduate