Dana Kullgren
My Experience With The CIERA REU
About Me
My name is Dana Kullgren and I am an undergraduate physics major at the University of Delaware. I plan to graduate in 2024 and go
on to study astrophysics in graduate school. Aside from physics, I like to play guitar, read books, make and admire art, and spend
time with my friends and family.
This summer, I worked with Drs. Fred A. Rasio and Giacomo Fragione during the CIERA REU at Northwestern University. My project
focused on comparing simulated mergers of black holes to observed mergers in order to put constraints on the stellar initial
mass function (which determines the mass distribution of stars). To contact me about this project or anything else, feel free to
send me a message on LinkedIn.
Acknowledgements
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. AST-2149425,
a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) grant awarded to CIERA at Northwestern University. Any opinions, findings,
and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
This research was supported in part through the computational resources and staff contributions provided for the
Quest high performance computing facility at Northwestern University which is jointly supported by the Office of the
Provost, the Office for Research, and Northwestern University Information Technology.
This research was also supported by Aaron Geller and Tjitske Starkenburg who oversaw the CIERA REU.