Prabhani Rajakaruna earned her Master of Science in Physics at Central Michigan University , following her BS at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka . She completed a four-month project at Gemini North , testing the data reduction pipeline and improving the data quality for the Observatory ’ s new high-resolution optical spectrograph GRACES . This involved verifying the stability of the spectrograph focus with temperature and pressure , and identifying the optimal parameters for the calibration process . Prabhani has also written a script to gather the ideal calibrations for each GRACES observation in order to send the best data to the archive . In addition , she has thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to observe with Gemini and see GRACES in action .
Piera A . Soto King earned her BS and MS at the Universidad de La Serena in Chile . She is working with Rodolfo Angeloni at Gemini South on spectroscopic confirmations of candidate symbiotic stars . Symbiotic stars are long-period interacting binaries composed of a hot compact star and an evolved giant star . For her six month project , Piera will reduce and analyze long-slit spectroscopic data of a carefully selected sample of symbiotic star candidates to fully characterize their nature . She is also working on a proposal to observe more candidates for this project with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph at Gemini South .
Keep an eye out for more great work from these students as they move forward in their careers , and please do check the Gemini job opportunities link for internship opportunities at both Gemini North and South .
Alison Peck is an Instrument Program Scientist at Gemini North . She can be reached at : apeck @ gemini . edu
28 GeminiFocus April 2017