Faculty | Catherine "Caty"  A. Pilachowski

Distinguished Professor and
Daniel Kirkwood Chair,
Ph.D. Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 1975

Contact Information:

Department of Astronomy
Indiana University
Swain West
727 East Third Street
Bloomington, IN 47405
Phone: (812) 855-6913
Email: cpilacho[at]indiana.edu

Biographical Information: (curriculum vita) - If you are assigned to "interview an astronomer" for school, please see my interview page for help with your assignment (or listen to the podcasts linked at the bottom of this page).

Professor Pilachowski is a Distinguished Professor and Kirkwood Chair in Astronomy at Indiana University Bloomington, where she teaches and conducts research on the evolution of stars and the chemical history of the Milky Way Galaxy from studies of the chemical composition of stars and star clusters (see her research page for more information).

Caty is an observational astronomer specializing in understanding the spectra of starlight. She uses large telescopes around the world for her research. Before joining the faculty at IU in 2001, she served for more than 20 years on the scientific staff of the Kitt Peak National Observatory (now part of NSF's NOIRLab) in Tucson. While working at Kitt Peak, she served as Project Scientist for the design and construction of the 3.5-meter WIYN Telescope, a telescope at which the IUB Astronomy Department holds a 20% share.

In addition to her astronomical research, Professor Pilachowski has been active in the areas of astronomical instrumentation, large telescope design and construction, electronic publications, women in science, and astronomy education. She has served on numerous national and international boards and committees and as President of the American Astronomical Society from 2002-2004. She is a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society and of the Association for the Advancement of Science.

Professor Pilachowski received a B.S. in Physics from Harvey Mudd College in California, and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii.

Curriculum and Outreach:

• Research Based Science Education for Undergraduates (CCLI)
• Ethics in Undergraduate Education
• Activities for Introductory Astronomy Classes
• Tips for scientific writing
• Graduate Seminar in Astronomical Citizenship (Spring 2002) (ADS link). Here is a PDF of the paper: AER Paper

Podcasts and Conversations:

• WFPL Louisville State of Affairs radio show (2011)
• WFHB interview by Michael Glab (2017)
• Through the Gates podcast from Indiana University (2017)
• TMO Background Mode Interview by John Martellaro (2018)
• Interplanetary Podcast with Matt Russell and Jamie Franklin (2020)
• The Orbital Mechanics Podcast with David Fourman, Ben Etherington, and Dennis Just about the WIYN Observatory (2020)
• The TMT International Observatory's Associate Project Manager's Blog with Dr. Ravinder Bhatia (2020)
• Science Vs. Podcast on Astrology (2020)

Recent Publications:

• Chemical abundances of open clusters from high-resolution infrared spectra - II. NGC 752
  Bocek Topcu, G.; Afsar, M.; Sneden, C.; Pilachowski, et al. 2020, MNRAS, 491, 544
• Carbon and Oxygen Isotopic Ratios. II. Semiregular Variable M Giants
  Lebzelter, T.; Hinkle, K. H.; Straniero, O.; Lambert, D. L.; Pilachowski, C. A.; Nault, Kr. A. 2019, AJ, 886, 117L
• Phosphorus Abundances in the Hyades and Galactic Disk
  Maas, Z. G.; Cescutti, G.;Pilachowski, C. A. 2019, AJ, 158, 219
• Chemical Abundances of Open Clusters From High-Resolution Infrared Spectra. II. NGC 752
  Bocek Topcu, G.; Afsar, M.; Sneden, C.; Pilachowski, C. A. et al. 2020, MNRAS,
• Chemical abundances of open clusters from high-resolution infrared spectra - I. NGC 6940
  Bocek Topcu, G.; Afsar, M.; Sneden, C.; Pilachowski, C. A. et al. 2019, MNRAS, 485, 4625
• Carbon Isotope Ratios in M10 Giants
  Maas, Z. G.; Gerber, J. M.; Deibel, Alex; Pilachowski, C. A. 2019, ApJ, 878, 43
• Chlorine Isotope Ratios in M Giants
  Maas, Z. G., Pilachowski, C. A. 2018, AJ, 156, 2
• Is the Young Star RZ Piscium Consuming Its Own (Planetary) Offspring?
  Punzi, K. M., Kastner, J. H. et al. 2018, AJ, 155, 33.
• Photometric Detection of Multiple Populations in Globular Clusters Using Integrated Light
  Bowman, W. P., Pilachowski, C. A., van Zee, L., Winans, A., Ciardullo, R., Gronwall, C. 2017, AJ, 154, 131.
• Photometric and radial-velocity time series of RR Lyrae stars in M3: analysis of single-mode variables
  Jurcsik, J., Smitola, P. et al. 2017, MNRAS, 468, 1317.
• Phosphorus Abundances in FGK Stars
  Maas, Z. G., Pilachowski, C. A., Cescutti, G. 2017, ApJ, 841, 108.
• Differences in the rotational properties of multiple stellar populations in M13: a faster rotation for the `extreme' chemical subpopulation
  Cordero, M. J., Henault-Brunet, V., Pilachowski, C. A., Balbinot, E., Johnson, C. I., Varri, A. L. 2017, MNRAS, 465, 3515
• An Archive of Spectra from the Mayall Fourier Transform Spectrometer at Kitt Peak
  Pilachowski, C. A., Hinkle, K. H., Young, M. D., Dennis, H. B., Gopu, A., Henschel, R., Hayashi, S. 2017, PASP, 129, 024006.
• The M Dwarf Eclipsing Binary CU Cancri
  Wilson, R. E., Pilachowski, C. A., Terrell, D. 2017, ApJ, 835, 251.
• The Abundance of Lithium in an ABG Star in the Globular Cluster M3 (NGC 5272)
  Givens, R. A., Pilachowski, C. A. 2016, PASP, 128, 124203.