Opportunities

Who Should Reach Out

I am especially interested in hearing from undergraduates who want serious exposure to theoretical astrophysics, orbital dynamics, or scientific modeling. The strongest fit is usually someone who is curious, reliable, and willing to spend time learning how research questions are framed and simplified before they are solved.

You do not need to have done research before. A background in calculus, introductory mechanics, and some programming is helpful, but enthusiasm matters more than arriving with a full technical toolkit.

How To Reach Out

If one of these directions sounds interesting, please email me at agtaylor@umich.edu. A short note is best: introduce yourself, tell me what topic caught your attention, describe any relevant coursework or coding experience, and mention what kind of commitment you are looking for.

For undergraduate inquiries, it is especially helpful to include your current year, major, and whether you are looking for a semester project, summer project, or something longer-term.

Project Ideas

The ideas below are meant to give a sense of the kinds of projects I would be excited to supervise. They are not fixed, and I expect to rotate them in and out as my research evolves. You do not have to come to me with a new or concrete idea. For many of these projects I have a specific, if flexible, goal in mind. If you do have your own idea and would like to work with me, I am also happy to chat!

Observability of embedded circumplanetary systems

Goal: Model the local heating of a circumstellar disk from an embedded protoplanet and its circumplanetary disk, and explore how this evolves as a gap opens.

Especially in their early stages, circumplanetary systems will be embedded in the circumstellar disk. The attenuation from the circumstellar disk means that it may be difficult to observe these objects directly. However, the local heating from the planet and its circumplanetary disk will affect the structure of the circumstellar disk, which will in turn affect the observability of the planet and its circumplanetary disk. This project will explore how this heating evolves as a gap opens, and how it affects the observability of the planet and its circumplanetary disk. We will aim to quantify the size and magnitude of a "hot spot" in a disk and to explore how these values change across parameter space and as the planet carves a gap in the disk.

Good fit: This project is a good option for students interested in studying planet formation and planet-disk interactions. This project will rely on RADMC-3D and will involve some simple coding. Some initial experience with Python would be helpful, but is not required. Some simple radiative transfer and fluid dynamics calculations will also be involved.

Scope: This project will begin as a semester-length project but will likely take around a year to complete in full.

Interstellar object production

Goal: Create a toy model for interstellar object production and compare to the observed population.

We expect to detect many more interstellar objects in the next 10 years as Rubin comes online. With this larger population, the age distribution of interstellar objects will be a powerful tool for investigating planet abundances across the Galaxy and throughout Galactic history. This project will construct a simple toy model for ISO production throughout Galactic history, which will be used to constrain production rates via comparison to the current population.

Good fit: Good option for students who are interested in differential equations and applying toy models to real situations. This project will involve some coding and some back-of-the-envelope calculations for the production and destruction of interstellar objects.

Scope: Medium-term, the whole project will likely take at least a semester and is designed to reach an interesting result. Further work will certainly be developed during the process.

Protoplanet feedback heating from circumplanetary disks

Goal: Explore how a circumplanetary disk will heat the central planet.

Simulations of circumplanetary disks (e.g., Taylor et al. 2026) find that the disk can be quite hot, with temperatures of order 1000 K. These simulations allow the central planet to absorb radiation from the disk, but the planet temperature is fixed. As much as 10% of the total system luminosity can be lost in this process, meaning that the planet must be hotter than currently modeled. This project would explore how this heating affects the planet's structure and evolution, and how it might affect the planet's observability.

Good fit: Good option for students who are primarily interested in simulations and modeling. This effect is unlikely to be significant, but this project will provide good training in coding and using RADMC-3D. Some initial experience with Python would be helpful.

Scope: Flexible; could be a short project focused on learning how to use RADMC-3D and exploring the parameter space, or it could be a longer project that includes developing a more detailed model for the planet's structure and evolution.

Expectations and Time Commitment

Projects can be scoped for a semester, a summer, or a longer collaboration depending on your background and available time. If you are an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, a research project can also be taken for-credit with Fred Adams as a co-advisor. In most cases, the first stage of a project is learning the relevant physical context, reading a manageable amount of literature, and identifying a well-posed question that is appropriate for your level of preparation. In many cases, I may already have an idea for a good research question that an undergrad would be able to address.

I value clear communication, steady progress, and realistic scope. A successful project does not have to begin with a large technical result. After all, student projects are fundamentally designed to teach the student, not to do science! The science is a useful side benefit.