Clive Binu Selected for Radio Astronomy Summer Assistantship

Clive Binu, an undergraduate in the Department of Physics & Astronomy, has been selected for a Summer Student Research Assistantship at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). As an NRAO program trainee, he plans to conduct a research project, “Testing Satellite Impacts on Radio Telescopes: VLA and VLBA,” for 10 to 12 weeks at the NRAO site in Charlottesville, Va.

Binu is the fourth Texas Tech student in recent years to be selected for participation in the NRAO Summer Student Research Program.

Physics has been a fascination for Binu since childhood.

“I saw Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein as my role models and always wanted to be a scientist and work at space agencies such as NASA and Space X,” Binu said. “I became interested in astrophysics and astronomy when my middle school teacher gave a class on the evolution of stars and the formation of black holes.

Radio astronomy has opened a way to explore the universe beyond the visible spectrum. Binu said it is “pretty cool” because radiofrequency is something that cannot be seen by the eyes.

So by using radio astronomy, we can see the hidden part of the universe, and we can get a better understanding of objects that we already do see,” he said.

The NRAO Summer Student Research Assistantship will bring Binu one step closer to his goal of becoming a scientist at NASA or Space X.

“It will increase my knowledge on handling various telescopes,” Binu said, “along with improving my skills in analyzing data from these telescopes.