Dr. Manavi Jadhav Receives NSF Award

Manavi Jadhav was awarded the National Science Foundation’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (NSF-EPSCoR) Research Fellowship for the project titled: Heavy Element Isotopic Characterization of Stardust.

This project will study microscopic stardust grains in the laboratory to find answers to the most fundamental question of the origin of elements in the Universe and to understand the properties of the materials that formed our solar system. With the aid of this fellowship, the PI will gain extended access to the new, state-of-the-art, Laser Ionization of Neutrals (LION) resonance ionization mass spectrometry (RIMS) facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and collaborate with the scientist-in-charge, Dr. Michael Savina. LION will allow the PI and her graduate student, Ishita Pal, to systematically measure isotopic compositions of heavy trace elements in individual micron-sized graphitic stardust grains from supernovae and grains with i-process signatures. RIMS is a powerful technique to measure heavy isotopes as it selectively ionizes elements of interest and eliminates isobaric interferences. The results from this study promise to bring about a potentially transformative understanding of how heavy elements are created in supernovae and some lesser-known exotic stars that contributed starter materials to our solar system.