Peyton Benac

Peyton Benac

Graduate student at UCLA studying Astronomy & Astrophysics.

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publications

Astronomy 98 Final Paper

Published in Wolbach Library, 2019

A research project for course credit, using Prospector to perform SED fitting on galaxies included in the SDSS MaNGA sample.

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ApJ: A Dust Trap around the Young Multiple System HD 34700

Published in Astrophysical Journal, 2020

Using SMA observations, we detect a region of azimuthally asymmetric dust emission in a circumbinary disk around HD 34700Aa/Ab that is indicative of dust trapping.

Recommended citation: Benac, P., Matrà, L., Wilner, D., Jimènez-Donaire, M., Monnier, J., Harries, T., Laws, A., Rich, E., & Zhang, Q. (2020). A Dust Trap in the Young Multiple System HD 34700. The Astrophysical Journal, 905(2), 120. http://www.peytonbenac.com/files/2011.03489.pdf

View in ADS here

AJ: Re-examining the Radial Distributions of M13 Multiple Populations

Published in Astronomical Journal, 2020

We seek to resolve the tension in the literature regarding the presence of radially segregated multiple populations in the Galactic globular cluster M13. Previous studies of this nearby cluster have presented discordant results about the degree of dynamical mixing in the inner region of M13. Using ground-based (UBVI) photometry, we show that cumulative radial distributions of stars on the blue and red sides of the red giant branch are statistically identical.

Recommended citation: Smolinski, J., Hoogendam, W., Van Kooten, A., Benac, P., & Bruce, Z. (2020). Re-examining the Radial Distributions of M13 Multiple Populations. The Astronomical Journal, 160(5), 208. http://www.peytonbenac.com/files/2011.08684.pdf

View in ADS here

Senior Undergraduate Thesis

Published in Wolbach Library, 2021

Testing Optical Elements of the Wide-Field Phasing Testbed for the Giant Magellan Telescope.

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teaching

Science Olympiad

Middle School Coaching, Jenison High School, 2013

As a Science Olympiad coach, I taught basic astronomy, electromagnetism, optics, experimental design, scientific writing, and epidemiology to middle school students. The responsibilities of this role included lesson planning, test writing, curriculum design, and classroom management.

Yleana Leadership Academy

Summer Program, Yleana Leadership Academy, 2018

The Yleana Leadership Academy (YLA) is a summer program for students from high-need schools in major East coast cities where students live in a residential program and receive intensive SAT preparatory classes, as well as education about the real-world issues of justice and inequality. As a teacher for the YLA, I received extensive training on teaching test-taking strategies by building students’ critical thinking skills. Teaching at Yleana taught me to teach using the socratic method, to manage a classroom of students even during conflict, and to understand how students’ backgrounds impact their learning.

Harvard Ed Portal

Mentoring, Harvard Ed Portal, 2018

As an Ed Portal Mentor, I sought to provide innovative and engaging lessons to elementary and middle school students in the Allston area. Mentors were asked not to provide homework help, but instead to help students develop their curiosity on topics not covered in conventional schooling. For example, while working with a third-grade girl who was interested in space, we did various hands-on activities to help her learn about the size and scale of the solar system.

Teaching Assistant at UCLA

Term-time employment, University of California, Los Angeles, 2021

As a graduate student, I am a teaching assistant for general education astronomy classes. I lead discussion sections and exam review sessions to help students deeply engage with the material. I have received excellent student evaluations and a Distinguished Teaching Award from the Department of Physics and Astronomy.