Welcome to my little corner of the universe!
Welcome to my little corner of the universe!
On October 1, 1999 Chris Gelino proposed to me! The wedding took place in Hudson, MA on October 21, 2000. The weather was beautiful and almost everything went perfectly.....Here are the much anticipated wedding pictures!
A few publications:
--> My IAU 194 "Compact Binaries in the Galaxy and Beyond" poster 8.5'' x 11'' version, (Dec 2003) 
--> My ApJ paper on GRO J0422+32, the FIRST black hole to have a mass between 3 and 5 M_sun! in press
--> My Ph.D. Dissertation (September 2001)
--> The rest of my publications and invited talks can be found in my CV (.html with links) or less wordy versions without links: (.ps) (.pdf)
--> If you want to get in touch with me for any reason, the easiest way is to email me at dgelino@ucsd.edu
My name is Dawn Gelino (formerly Dawn Leeber) and I am an independent Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, San Diego. I successfully defended my Ph.D. Dissertation on September 11, 2001 (despite the horrors of that day) in the Department of Astronomy at New Mexico State University .
I passed my orals and my thesis proposal colloquium in May 1999, and since I passed my written cumulative exams earlier that year, I got my masters ! I was very happy about that. My thesis topic was centered around Soft X-Ray Transients (a family of Low Mass X-ray Binaries) and finding the masses of the objects of some these systems with questionable primary objects based on their infrared ellipsoidal light curve variations. Basically, I am confirming the existence of black holes! I have been to Chile, Germany, Mexico, Hawaii, and other cool places to use the largest optical telescopes in the world and to present my research at conferences. This picture of the observatory in Chile is one of my favorites! Some really cool stuff happens in these systems, so if you want to learn a little bit about X-ray binaries, click here . If you want to learn more about my research, check out my dissertation or my CV .
I have had a pretty good life so far (compared to what? I have no clue...). I have two younger sisters, Diana and Danielle. My mom's name is Susanne. I was born in Waltham, MA and have lived most of my life in Hudson, MA. I guess that we actually lived in Long Island, NY for a few years, but I was really young so I don't remember much about it... Anyway, after I graduated from good ol' Hudson High School in 1992, I went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in "beautiful" (insert laugh here) Troy, NY. I became a member of the Zeta Eta chapter of Alpha Gamma Delta. I spent four great years there, and graduated with my B.S. in Physics from the Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy in May 1996. I knew that I wanted to continue on in Astronomy, so I ended up in sunny New Mexico. I really prefer the observational side of astronomy rather than the theoretical side (those pictures are just so pretty!), but I am definitely gaining a deeper appreciation for the latter...
I am also a competitive artistic roller skater (or at least I was before moving to New Mexico).
If you want to see some exciting astronomy pictures, you can look at the Astronomy Picture of the Day , they have some really interesting stuff there! Or, if you prefer, you can get your everyday questions about black holes or other astronomy related things answered here . If you have younger kids, or want a less technical view of space, visit the Starchild astronomy website . This website won a 1998 Webby award for education...
This page is obviously under construction.
