Rachel Lee McClure

Hi! Welcome to my website. I am tenure-track faculty in the Physics & Astronomy Department at Weber State University, and also serve as Director of the Ott Planetarium. My research focuses is on connecting local observations within the Milky Way galaxy, along with IFU observations of nearby galaxies, to upcoming JWST and Roman observations in the earlier universe through strategic use of isolated galaxy simulation models. If you are interested in working on galaxy research with me, please register for ASTR 3170 and/or ASTR 3040 and we can discuss further researach opportunities in the McClure Student Research Projects (the local MSRP). If your interests are more dynamics-focused, please register for PHYS 3500 and PHYS 3310 (and PHYS 1300) so that you can jump into problems of orbital dynamics. Regardless of your current progress on our major requirements and these classes, feel free to reach out to discuss paths into research and current opportunities. We are always hiring at the Ott Planetarium; passing ASTR 1040 is our core requirement, plus an excitement for sharing astronomy with the general public!

Information is available to students on Canvas for each of my current courses. Please find office hours information and such there if you're in my class. If you need to make a one-on-one appointment, feel free to Get on my Calendar but please also follow up with me by email once you've set a time. I work to curate a classroom that provides an equitable experience for anyone interested in pursuing astronomy and physics.

I completed my PhD work at UW -- Madison Astronomy Department in the MadAstroDynamics Group as an National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. My thesis was an exploration of the formation and evolution of bars in disk galaxies throughout the universe in collaboration with advisor Prof. Elena D'Onghia. Barred spiral galaxies comprise about half of all galaxies in the local, low-redshift universe. Analytical studies have long investigated the conditions for disk stability as most uniformly rotating thin disks are unstable to bar formation. Galaxy surveys have only recently begun to reach the necessary quantity, spectroscopic richness, spatial resolution and distance needed for statistical samples required for detailed study of galaxies throughout our universe. In my work I aim to understand the formation and evolution of bars by bringing together simulation results with spatially resolved observational surveys of galaxies.