Nuclear Science Lab researcher and ND Department of Physics and Astronomy graduate student Cade Dembski has been selected as a 2023 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow.
Dembski works in the laboratory of Daniel Bardayan, professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. His research focuses on nuclear reactions that occur in extreme astrophysical objects, like neutron stars. The properties of specific reactions are important to how astronomers determine other characteristics, such as size and mass, of these objects from the signals they send to telescopes. An in-depth understanding of these astrophysical nuclear processes is also key to determining how all of the elements of the Periodic Table came to exist in the Universe today.
Dembski is also an Arthur J. Schmitt Fellow at Notre Dame.
“The NSF contributes so much to fundamental science research in the United States, and I can remember watching NSF-funded science TV shows before I even started school,” Dembski said. “To be recognized by an institution that has been a part of my past and will be a part of my future in science is very exciting at this stage of my career.”
Inaugurated in 1952, the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program recognizes and supports outstanding students in the NSF-supported STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited U.S. institutions. It is the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind.
Originally published by at isnap.nd.edu on April 04, 2023.