Carter started his research at l’Université de Montréal in September of 2018 under the supervision of Professor Julie Hlavacek-Larrondo as a master’s student. Carter decided to join the X-tra team after completing a master’s degree at Duke University in Computational Mechanics and Scientific Computing. Before attending Duke, Carter received a bachelor’s degree in Astronomy and another in Pure Mathematics at the College of Charleston (double minor in Geology and Russian) in his hometown: Charleston, South Carolina. As an undergraduate student, he had the opportunity to work on gravitational microlensing and its applications to quasars with Dr. George Chartas. In addition to hands-on research, he succeeded in co-authoring a paper on the subject and presenting the results at the Annual ESA meeting in Spain.
Carter is studying the faint-but-fascinating distant galaxy cluster SpARCS1049+56 in collaboration with Professor Tracy Webb at McGill University. He hopes to use Chandra X-ray data to resolve the the mechanism responsible for the incredible stellar activity taking place at the heart of the cluster. In addition to studying this confounding galaxy cluster (confounding in the sense that its stellar formation rate is exceedingly elevated), Carter is using his affinity, and experience, for scientific computing to build a comprehensive suite of computational tools not only for the X-tra team, but also for the astronomy community as a whole.
Carter has integrated himself into life in Montreal by participating in its lively festivals and endless astronomy activities. He recently presented at the Astronomie en Fût event hosted by l’Université de Montréal and McGill University in January, 2019. He is currently completing his training to be the official GitHub Campus Expert at l’Université de Montréal.
You can find more information on his personal website: crhea93.github.io