About

Derek Berman

Derek Berman's undergraduate academic journey began in Spring 2012 at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst, where he enrolled as an astrophysics-track astronomy major. He was involved in research under his advisor, Dr. Min Yun.

His research involved the identification and observation of hyper luminous gravitationally lensed submillimeter galaxies. These are the some of most luminous galaxies ever discovered in the universe. The work of his research group has so far led to two publications and was the topic of his senior thesis. He also became involved in a separate line of research under Dr. Isaac Larsen of the UMass Geosciences Department.

This research consisted of mineral separation and geochemical analysis of ilmenite and olivine extracted from basalt samples to calibrate production rates of cosmogenic 3He in ilmenite. Rates of 3He production are required for cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating to quantify rates of landscape evolution.

This should give us a new method to determine the age of a rock found lying upon the surface of the Earth. This Project is ongoing in the modeling phase and the results should be published sometime later this year. While at UMass he developed an interest in Planetary Geology - an area of study that combined his two degrees. Berman later learned of Dr. David Leverington of Texas Tech University whose areas of research aligned with Berman's interests. Berman applied to the Texas Tech Graduate School and was accepted. His current area of research is studying volcanic channels on Venus and Mercury. This includes image analysis of surface features, as well as modeling these systems to determine many of the physical characteristics of their formation and evolution.