Undergrad’s Childhood Curiosity About the Universe Leads Him to Astrophysics Research at SBU

Ryan Brady' the URECA researcher of the month for November - is a senior with a double major in physics and astronomy/planetary sciences. For the last year and a half, he has been doing research under the mentorship of Professor Michael Zingale on a computational astrophysics project involving the simulation of double detonation Type Ia supernovae models using the Castro simulation code. Brady also recently started a research project under the supervision of Assistant Professor Simon Birrer, where he analyzes Hubble Space Telescope data of doubly imaged quasars to make newer estimates on the expansion rate of the universe (Hubble's constant).

When asked what he enjoys most about doing research at Stony Brook, he answered, "Research is exciting. There are always new questions that need to be solved. And new things to analyze, new insights to discover. And so it really helps keep me motivated through some of the rougher days where a code keeps crashing …. I'm motivated by the fact that there's always a new frontier ahead to discover something new."

As a sophomore, Brady participated in his first undergraduate research project working with Professor Thomas Weinacht on "Using Field Programmable Gate Arrays as Oscilloscopes and Arbitrary Waveform Generators." In addition to spending two full summers on campus dedicated to undergraduate research through participation in the 2023 Explorations in STEM and 2024 URECA Summer programs, he has also twice been awarded the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) New York Space Grant to support his work (Spring 2024 and Fall 2024) and has received support for conference presentations from URECA and from the Conference Experience for Undergraduates award from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (Fall 2024).

Over the last six to seven months, Brady has presented posters on campus at the 2024 Physics and Astronomy Undergraduate Symposium (March 2024) and the Summer Symposium (August 2024), he also participated in the SUNY Undergraduate Research Conference at Suffolk County Community College, and most recently, he went to the American Physical Society Division of Nuclear Physics Meeting in Boston (October 2024) to present "Sensitivity of Double Detonation Type Ia Supernovae Simulations to Initial Conditions and Shock Treatment."

On campus, Brady is active as president of the Stony Brook High C's Tenor-Tenor-Baritone-Bass a cappella choir and as engagement chair for the Stony Brook chapter of the B+ Foundation, known as Wolfiethon, which raises awareness and funds for childhood cancer research and for cancer patient support. He has also served as a peer mentor through the Society of Physics Students.

Read the full interview with URECA Director Karen Kernan.