• Headshot of Ryan Trainor (2021)
Assistant Professor of Physics

717-358-4812

elna.genvabe@snaqz.rqh

Office: HAC 227

About Me

Prof. Ryan Trainor stands in front of several telescopes on the top of the sacred mountain Maunakea.
For more information about my research and teaching activities and those of my students, please see my professional website.

Latest News 

Grant awarded from the Pittsburgh Foundation

Prof. Trainor received a grant of $95,230 over two years from The Pittsburgh Foundation to support his research with students! Existing data and new observations on galaxy growth will address two major questions in astronomy. First, how does “feedback” from stars and supermassive black holes affect the galaxies and their circumgalactic medium (...

Press Release

Future Student Researchers Will Look Back Billions of Years

Read this article to learn about  the upcoming (update: completed as of December 25, 2021) launch of JWST, a new space telescope that our group will be using to to study the formation of elements in the early Universe. 

F&M Article

Trainor Group Visits W. M. Keck Observatory

Hackman Scholars Noah Lamb '19 and Sandy Chilson '20 took a trip with Prof. Trainor to use the new Keck Cosmic Web Imager at the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi. We toured the telescope, learned about Hawai'ian culture, and collected some valuable data for our future projects!    

Assistant Professor Ryan Trainor Awarded Grant to Find Stars in the Faintest Galaxies

Assistant Professor of Physics Ryan Trainor has been awarded a two-year, $92,000 grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) to search for stars in extremely faint “dwarf” galaxies in the distant universe.   

Read more.

Research

Prof. Ryan Trainor's research is in the evolution of galaxies and black holes over the history of the Universe. He is particularly interested in the interactions of stars, gas, black holes, and dark matter in shaping the observable properties of galaxies , and his recent work has focused on techniques for characterizing the most intrinsically-faint galaxies in the early Universe.

Prof. Trainor works primarily using optical and infrared telescopes including the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaii; Las Campanas Observatory in Chile; and the Hubble Space Telescope. He is also involved in planning projects for the James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared-sensitive successor to the Hubble Space Telescope set to launch in 2018.

A complete list of Prof. Trainor's publications to date can be found via the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System.

Course Information 

Students may find detailed information for all courses via the Canvas web platform.

Spring 2022:

  • AST 332 - Galaxies & Cosmology
  • PHY 111 - Fundamental Physics I

Fall 2021:

  • AST 100 - Survey of Astronomy (w/lab)
  • PHY 111 - Fundamental Physics I

Spring 2021:

  • Visiting Scientist at JHU P&A (Junior Faculty Research Leave)

Fall 2020:

  • AST 100 - Survey of Astronomy (w/lab)
  • PHY 111 - Fundamental Physics I

Spring 2020:

  • AST 121 - Introduction to Astrophysics (w/lab)
  • Child-Rearing 202 (self-taught, with collaborators)

Fall 2019:

  • PHY 333 - Electric and Magnetic Fields
  • Child-Rearing 201 (self-taught, with collaborators)

Spring 2019:

  • PHY 112 - Fundamental Physics II
  • AST 121 - Introduction to Astrophysics

Fall 2018:

  • PHY 111 - Fundamental Physics I (w/lab)
  • PHY 333 - Electric and Magnetic Fields

Spring 2018:

  • PHY 111 - Fundamental Physics I (w/lab)
  • AST 121 - Introduction to Astrophysics

 Fall 2017:

  • PHY 333 - Electric and Magnetic Fields
  • AST 100 - Survey of Astronomy (lab)

 

Education

  • BS Physics, University of California, Irvine 

  • MS Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology

  • PhD Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology

  • Postdoctoral Fellowship, Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, University of California, Berkeley