Hi, I'm Kirk Long

Imminently (hopefully) graduating Ph.D. candidate on the astrophysics side of the department!

Graduated Magna Cum Laude, with Distinguished Honors from the Honors College, and was recognized as a Graduating Student Leader. Additionally minored in Music and Applied Mathematics.

Most recently as the latest part of my thesis we have developed and tested a new deconvolution technique using a custom (de)convolutional neural network ((D)CNN) to recover velocity-resolved reverberation mapping transfer functions. Our article describing this new technique is currently under review in the Astrophysical Journal, and the code and several sample trained (D)CNNs are available here. A plain-language summary is coming soon!

For the second project of my Ph.D. we demonstrated that no popular current models of the BLR can explain the line and delay profiles seen in velocity-resolved reverberation mapping measurements. Our article thoroughly demonstrating this problem as well as positing a few possible solutions results was published in the Astrophysical Journal, and a plain language summary is available here.

To enable the results shown in my second project above, I developed a flexible and fast Julia code for bespoke modeling of the BLR. You can install it yourself here, or view the software paper here (under review in the Journal of Open-Source Software).

In the first part of my Ph.D., we investigated whether an alternative "disk-wind" model of the BLR can fit data taken by the GRAVITY instrument on VLTI of quasar 3C273. Our paper on these results was published in the Astrophysical Journal, and a plain language summary is available here.

Future directions/current work: I am working now to combine my previous work on novel inversion techniques with my new, hybrid BLR models to fit a sample of AGN with velocity-resolved reverberation mapping measurements to better constrain the systematic model-dependent uncertainties in our measurements of quantities like black hole mass (in addition to simply better understanding the true nature of the BLR). I am also interested in applying this modeling work to newly observed little red dots (LRDs) found with JWST, and applying my machine learning technique to large samples of RM data in existing and upcoming surveys such as SDSS-V and the Vera Rubin Observatory's LSST.

Analyzed archival data from the CHANDRA and XMM-Newton observatories to search for both new pulsars and those with changing periods, indicating accretion.

Taught ASTR 2030 Black Holes as instructor of record for APS department with 120 students, supervising a TA and grader. Developed assignments, exams, and lecture materials.

Taught recitations/labs for undergraduate students in both lower and upper division astrophysics courses, and helped develop Jupyter notebook labs.

Taught (and was instructor of record for) undergraduate physics and astronomy labs for both majors and non-majors.

Led drop-in tutoring lab for physics department, mostly assisting students with lower-division coursework.

In Idaho I developed and taught an introductory programming course (1 hour/week) for adult inmates to help them learn Python - most of the notebooks I created are available here. While the pandemic put a pause on my outreach in correctional facilities, since the beginning of 2022 I've been volunteering once a week with the Department of Youth Services teaching/tutoring youth inmates as they work towards their GEDs, and I'm excited about continuing to expand this work!

Showed members of the public the wonders of the night sky through various large telescopes, and gave 45 minute public talks/presentations on astronomy-related topics to crowds as large as 300 people, with more than 20,000 visitors to the observatory during my employment there. Former volunteer of more than 300 hours (from June 2015 to March 2017).

Brought in various "cool" science demonstrations to generate interest in the GED programs at both the men's and women's facilities in Idaho as well as a men's youth facility in Colorado, occasionally helping with GED lessons when applicable to physics/math/chemistry. Idaho work featured on the Boise State University website (08/2019), on local news channel KIVI (11/2019), and in the Boise State alumni magazine, Focus (5/2020)

Wrote blog posts on convoluted and/or newsworthy astronomy/physics topics, disseminated to an online audience of >500,000.

Built automated Twitter account that posts random three-body simulations (generated in Julia) once a day, source code available here. Unfortunately recent Twitter changes have since broken the bot there, but it continues to post daily on Mastodon, Tumblr, BlueSky, and (more sporadically) YouTube.