I am a fifth year graduate student working on characterizing the environments around and toward young stars. I use ultraviolet observations of carbon monoxide and neutral hydrogen absorption as well as molecular hydrogen emission. Understanding these regions informs us of the physics and chemistry involved in the planet formation process.
Selected Recent Publications:
McJunkin, M., France, K., Burgh, E., Herczeg, G., Schindhelm, E., Brown, J., Brown, A., 2013. "Probing the Inner Regions of Protoplanetary Disks with CO Absorption Line Spectroscopy", ApJ, 766, 12
McJunkin, M., France, K., Schneider, P. C., Herczeg, G., Brown, A., Hillenbrand, L., Schindhelm, E., Edwards, S., 2014. "Direct Measurement of Interstellar Extinction toward Young Stars Using Atomic Hydrogen Lyα Absorption", ApJ, 780, 150
France, K., Herczeg, G., McJunkin, M., Penton, S., 2014. "CO/H2 Abundance Ratio ~ 10^{-4} in a Protoplanetary Disk"