Nick Nelson

Nick Nelson is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in physics with an astronomy emphasis. He works with Dr. Phil Chang at the UWM Center for Gravitation, Cosmology, and Astrophysics where he researches cataclysmic variables, binary star systems which consist of a companion star that overflows onto a white dwarf, causing a classical nova event. He studies the ejection processes of these systems using 3D moving mesh hydrodynamic simulations. He first became involved in astronomy research in the fall of 2023, where he worked with the Pulsar Search Collaboratory through STARS at UWM to find new pulsars using radio telescope data. He began his current research with Dr. Chang in the summer of 2024 and additionally worked with Dr. David Kaplan. In his research with Dr. Kaplan, he used radio and x-ray emission from pulsars as a probe to determine the correlation between the number of free electrons and hydrogen atoms in the interstellar medium. After graduation, he plans to pursue a PhD in astrophysics with the goal of becoming a professor.