Danielle Dickinson

About me

I am from the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago, IL. I completed my Astronomy (Honors) and Physics Majors, with minors in Mathematics and Spanish, from The University of Arizona in Spring 2021. I began work as a PhD student at Purdue University the following semester. I work with Danny Milisavljevic on enhanced mass loss in massive stars before stellar death.

Fun Fact: When Bhagya Subrayan and our group first took interest in AT 2021lwx, I mistakenly read its ZTF ID (ZTF20abrbeie) as Barbie! Ever since then, we have referred to this transient as "Scary Barbie." The study and naming of this object came at the perfect time with Greta Gerwig's movie coming out. And yes, I did do Barbenheimer, and I saw Barbie first.

What i'm doing

Echelle Spectroscopy

High resolution (R>60,000) spectroscopy of supernovae with flash features.
JWST Imaging and Spectroscopy

NIRSpec and MIRI/MRS spectra of Cassiopeia A.
Optical Integral Field Unit Spectroscopy

Reconstructing mass loss environments with spatially-resolved observations.
Long-Slit Spectroscopy

Long-slit spectroscopy of supernova remnants for kinematic reconstruction.

Affiliations

Resume

Education

Purdue University
2021 — Present
Ph.D. Physics (In Progress)
M.Sc. Physics (In Progress)
Advisor: Prof. Danny Milisavljevic
Thesis: Reconstructing mass loss environments and explosive debris of CCSNe
University of Arizona
2017 — 2021
B.Sc. Astronomy (Honors), B.Sc. Physics (Cum Laude)
Minors: Mathematics, Spanish
Advisor: Prof. Nathan Smith

Presentations

Invited Talks

Guest Lecture at Ivy Tech Community College PHYS 100 Class, Lafayette, IN, January 2026
Guest Lecture for Oak Forest High School, Oak Forest, IL, Dec. 2025
Big Boom Science Discussion, Tucson, AZ, October 2025
Guest Lecture at Ivy Tech Community College PHYS 100 Class, Lafayette, IN, April 2025
Purdue Astronomy Club Group Meeting, West Lafayette, IN, Oct. 2024
Guest Lecture for Oak Forest High School, Oak Forest, IL, Oct. 2024
Guest Lecture at Ivy Tech Community College PHYS 100 Class, Lafayette, IN, Aug. 2024
V. A. Villar Group Meeting, Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, July 2024
WIYN/NEID Board Meeting, April 2024
CIERA/Northwestern Time-Domain Summer Journal Club, Aug. 2023
Contributed Talks

Rutgers Summer Transient Science Soiree, Piscataway, NJ, July 2025
Rise_Time Conference, West Lafayette, IN Aug. 2024
Spoken WERRD+ Transient Conference, Oct. 2022
Big Boom Science Discussion, Tucson, AZ, Nov. 2020
Purdue University Physics & Astronomy Final REU Mini-Conference, Aug. 2020
Arizona/NASA Space Grant Consortium Annual Symposium, April 2020
Big Boom Science Discussion, Tucson, AZ, Nov. 2019
Posters

247th Meeting of the AAS, Phoenix, AZ, Jan. 2026
Purdue Physics Poster Session, Wes Lafayette, IN, Nov. 2025
245th Meeting of the AAS, National Harbor, MD, Jan. 2025
Purdue Physics Poster Session, West Lafayette, IN, Nov. 2024
Supernova Remnants III, Chania, Greece, June 2024
WISP Travel Grant Symposium, West Lafayette, IN, April 2024
243rd Meeting of the AAS, New Orleans, LA, Jan. 2024
241st Meeting of the AAS, Seattle, WA, Jan. 2023
237th Meeting of the AAS, Jan. 2021
235th Meeting of the AAS, Honolulu, HI, Jan. 2020
University of Arizona First Year Project Symposium, Tucson, AZ, April 2018

Employment

Graduate Research Assistant
2022 — Present
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Fellow
Summer 2024
Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA
Supervised by John Raymond and Dan Patnaude.
Graduate Teaching Assistant
August 2021 - May 2023, Spring 2026
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Reduced and analyzed long-slit spectroscopy of G292; contributed to PhD research.
Astronomy Camp Counselor
Summer 2021
Science Center Intepreter and Planetarium Operator
April 2019 - May 2021
Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium, Tucson, AZ

Teaching & Mentorship

Astrocamp
March 2023, 2026
San Jose de Las Vegas, Medellin, Colombia
Data Mine Teaching Assistant
2022 — Present
Mentored undergraduate research students and taught LaTeX and data analysis.

Leadership & Service

Physics Graduate Student Association
2022 — Present
President (2025–2026), Vice President (2024-2025), Secretary (2022-2024)
Outreach & Education
2021 — Present
Astronomy on Tap speaker, AstroCamp organizer, public lectures, and science communication initiatives.

Honors & Awards

Major Awards

2026 Philanthropic Educational Organization (PEO) Scholar Award
2024 Graduate Student Chambliss Award
2023 The Gabriele F. Giuliani Award
2022 Rolf Scharenberg Graduate Summer Research Fellowship
2021 Outstanding Senior for the Department of Astronomy and College of Science Finalist
2020-2021 Mortar Board National College Senior Honor Society
2020-2021 Galileo Circle Scholar
2020-2021 Slipher Scholarship
2017-2021 Academic Distinction
2019-2020 University of Arizona/NASA Space Grant Internship
2017-2021 Arizona Excellence Scholarship
2017-2021 Academic Recognition Award

Research

I study time domain astronomy. Currently, I am focusing on enhanced mass loss in massive stars during the decade prior to explosion. I am pursuing this topics with single-object extragalactic studies and with the supernova remnant, Cassiopeia A.

What am I up to?

Echelle Spectroscopy

Supernovae with Flash Features
Cassiopeia A

JWST Imaging & Spectroscopy
Optical IFU Spectroscopy

Reconstructing mass loss environments with spatially-resolved observations
Long-Slit Spectroscopy

Reconstructing Supernova Remnants
REFITT

The Recommender Engine For Intelligent Transient Tracking

Selected Publications

D. Dickinson, D. Milisavljevic, B. Garretson 2025. The Immediate, Exemplary, and Fleeting echelle spectroscopy of SN 2023ixf: Monitoring acceleration of slow progenitor circumstellar material, driven by shock interaction. ApJ.
10.3847/1538-4357/adc108

D. Dickinson, N. Smith, J. Andrews 2024. The Superluminous Type IIn Supernova ASASSN-15ua: Part of a Continuum in Extreme Precursor Mass Loss. MNRAS.
10.1093/mnras/stad3631

S. Orlando, H.-T. Janka, A. Wongwathanarat, D. Dickinson 2025. Filamentary Ejecta Network in Cassiopeia A Reveals Fingerprints of the Explosion Mechanism. A&A.
10.1051/0004-6361/202553833

I. De Looze, D. Milisavlejvic, T. Temim, D. Dickinson 2024. The Green Monster hiding in front of CasA: JWST reveals a dense and dusty circumstellar structure pockmarked by ejecta interactions. ApJ
10.3847/2041-8213/ad855d

W. V. Jacobson-Galan, K. W. Davis, C. D. Kilpatrick (incl. D. Dickinson) 2024. SN~2024ggi in NGC 3621: Rising Ionization in a Nearby, CSM-Interacting Type II Supernova. ApJ
10.3847/1538-4357/ad5c64

D. Milisavlejvic, T. Temim, I. De Looze, D. Dickinson 2024. JWST Survey of the Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A. ApJ
10.3847/2041-8213/ad324b

B. M. Subrayan, D. Milisavljevic, R. Chornock (incl. D. Dickinson) 2023. Scary Barbie: An Extremely Energetic, Long-duration Tidal Disruption Event Candidate without a Detected Host Galaxy at z = 0.995. ApJ
10.3847/2041-8213/accf1a

See All Publications

ORCID [0000-0003-0913-4120]

Team SUPERNOVA! Research Group

I am part of the Time Domain Astronomy Research Group at Purdue University, run by Dr. Danny Milisavljevic.

Portfolio

Every Wednesday, the Purdue Physics grad students host a coffee hour, and I took it upon myself in September 2024 to begin announcing the event. One thing led to another, and I now create elaborate announcements each week with the help of Canva and external inspiration. Below is a selection of my favorite announcements.

I also take pride in my graphic design skills. I have no formal training, but I thoroughly enjoy the creative process. This is particularly useful in creating the annual Team SUPERNOVA! team picture. My advisor, Dan Milisavljevic, has always made fun group pictures, and I have now taken charge of being the team's Creative Director (not really). But, I do think I make some neat designs, logos, artist renderings, and other silly, physics-related content.