James Casey, PhD

I have always been interested in astronomy. When I was a kid, I used to go out with a small telescope and spend all night looking through it at random planets and stars without really knowing what I was doing. While attending UAH, a few friends and I decided to start an astronomy club. During this time, I learned a ton about amateur astronomy as the vice president and eventually president of the UAH Astronomy Club. At the same time, I was studying astrophysics in my classes and preparing to start my PhD in astrophysics at Georgia Tech. The picture below is from one of our meetings where we had a huge turn out to observe a passing comet.

In grad school, I attended a summer school to learn more about analyses using the data from the Fermi Space Telescope. During that time, there was a transit of Venus across the Sun where I used my experience from the UAH Astronomy Club to help others observe the transit.

Astronomy remains an inspirational force in my life. I still love going out at setting up my telescope and observing various galaxies, nebulae, and planets. One future goal I have is observe all of the Messier Objects.