Curriculum Vitae

Anca Constantin

Education

• Ph.D. in Physics/Astronomy, August 2004, Ohio University (advisor Dr. Joseph C. Shields)
• B.S. in Physics, July 1995, University of Bucharest

Employment

• Research Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Drexel University, 09/06 - present
• investigating the environmental dependence of AGN activity and evolution
• advising and mentoring one PhD graduate student working on spectral energy distribution of normal and weakly active galaxies

• Post Doctoral Research Associate, Department of Physics, Drexel University, 09/04 - present
• investigating the clustering properties of the local AGN
• weighing Black Holes at high redshifts
• understanding AGN phenomenology in galaxy voids
• advising and mentoring one Master of Science graduate student working on the role of dust in shaping the quasar optical-UV emission.

• Research Associate, Ph.D. student, Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, 09/00 - 08/04
• led a study of the emission-line activity in a large sample of nearby low-luminosity galaxy nuclei that strongly constrains the census of accretion-powered sources at z ~ 0.
• designed and implemented a Monte Carlo based synthetic observational survey of quasars/Seyferts aimed at understanding the role of the intrinsic dust extinction in modifying their observed continuum energy distribution
• initiated and completed a study of the Narrow Line Seyfert 1 (NLS1)'s UV-optical properties based on HST archival spectra; implemented a spectral PCA to address the potential analogy between z > 4 QSOs and NLS1s
• conducted an exhaustive analysis of the emission-line properties of z > 4 QSOs, the selection effects associated with their detection, the implications on the early star-formation processes and primordial abundances
• reduced/analyzed large sets of optical spectra of intermediate and high redshift (z > 2) QSOs, acquired at MMT and Keck telecsopes
• reduced/analyzed CCD image frames acquired with small (0.25 m) class telescopes

• Teaching Assistant, Ph.D. student, Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, 09/98-09/00, Summer 2001
• taught laboratory physics and problem help sessions for physics and engineering majors

• Lecturer, "Ienachita Vacarescu" College, Targoviste, Romania, 08/95 - 08/98
• prepared and taught full physics courses for physics and engineering majors, and for students in life science

Publications 

• ADS
• astro-ph

Presentations/Workshops

• Public Talks
• The Delaware Valley Amateur Astronomers, PA, April 2005, Invited Public Presentation.

• Colloquia & Seminars
• Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, November 2006, Colloquium.
• Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, April 2006, Astro Journal Club.
• Widener University, Chester, PA, November 2005, Colloquium.
• Ohio University, Athens, OH, October 2005, Astrophysics Seminar.
• Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, March 2005, AGN Journal Club.
• University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, February 2005, Astro Journal Club
• Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, April 2004, Astrophysics Seminar.
• Ohio University, Athens, OH, November 2001, Astrophysics Seminar.

• Conferences
• "The Central Engine of Active Galactic Nuclei," Xi'an Jiaotong University, China, October 2006, contributed talk;
• "The History of Nuclear Black Holes in Galaxies," Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, May 2006, contributed poster;
• SDSS II Collaboration Meeting, Santa Fe, NM, March 2006, 3 contributed talks;
• AAS 207th Meeting, Washington, DC, January 2006, contributed talk;
• AAS 205th Meeting, San Diego, CA, January 2005, dissertation talk;
• "Extragalactic Astrophysics and the New Era of High-Energy Astronomy," Ohio Section of APS, Spring Meeting, Athens, OH, April 2004, contributed talk;
• AAS 203rd Meeting, Atlanta, GA, January 2004, contributed poster;
• "AGN Physics with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey", Princeton, NJ, July 2003, contributed poster;
• AAS 197-th Meeting, San Diego, CA, January 2001, contributed poster;
• " Advanced Lectures on the Starburst-AGN Connection, " Tonantzintla, Puebla, Mexico, June 2000, contributed poster;

• Others
• Summer School on Adaptive Optics 2002, University of California in Santa Cruz, CA, August 2002;
• 2nd Summer School on Lasers and Plasma Physics, A. I. Cuza University and Université Paris-Sud, Iasi, Romania, July 1995;

Awards

• NSF-Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Grant, "Empirical Tests for Galactic Black Hole Growth," 2005-2008, (proposal author; Administrative PI -Michael Vogeley)
• Ohio University Travel Grant, Fall, 2004
• John Cady Graduate Fellowship, Ohio University, 2002-2003
• Certificate in Physics Teaching, University of Bucharest, 1997
• National Merit Scholarship, University of Bucharest, 1993-1995

Professional Membership

• AAS (American Astronomical Society)
• ASP (Astronomical Society of the Pacific)
• APS (American Physical Society)
• Sigma Xi

Academic Service

• 2004 -: Drexel Astrophysics Journal Club Coordinator
• 2004-: reviewed for MNRAS and AJ
• 2004: judged for The Southeastern Ohio Science Fair
• 2001-2004: Astronomy Outreach at OU
• 2001-2004: webmaster WIPHA (Women In PHysics and Astronomy) at OU
• 1999: Working Group on International Teaching Assistants

Skills

• Computer Software: C/C++, Java, Fortran, IRAF, IDL, UNIX, Mathematica, HTML, and general office software (MSWORD, EXCEL, etc.)
• Manipulating and mining large datasets, in particular SDSS data.
• Languages: Romanian, English, (basic) French, (basic) Spanish

http://www.physics.drexel.edu/~constant/work/resume1.html