Faculty of Arts & Science welcomes Dr. Alex Tetarenko

Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from? What brought you to the University of Lethbridge?

I was born and raised in Calgary and received my BSc in astrophysics from the University of Calgary while training as a short track speed skater at the Olympic Oval. I pursued graduate school at the University of Alberta, obtaining an MSc in 2014 and PhD in 2018. Following my PhD studies, I worked in the Maunakea Observatories in Hawaii at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, and held a NASA Einstein Fellowship at Texas Tech University. I recently made my way back to Alberta as an assistant professor at ULethbridge.

What will you be teaching at ULethbridge and if applicable, what is the focus of your research?

I will be teaching first-year astronomy courses. My research program focuses on using stellar-mass black holes in our galaxy as unique laboratories to understand the complex relationship between the mass plunging into black holes and the material that is jettisoned away (a.k.a jets). The main goals of my research are to develop new ways to study these jets, both in terms of designing observing techniques to gather new types of data, as well as building new computational and statistical tools to analyze these data.

What or who inspired you to choose a career path in academia?

I always loved physics and math. What drew me to astrophysics is that it was an applied science; not just doing physics for physics sake, but using physics principals to understand the universe. I knew I wanted to stay on the observational side of astrophysics after my first observing trip to Maunakea in Hawaii as a graduate student.

How do you like to spend your spare time?

When I am not doing science, I am an avid runner and cyclist. I am also a passionate and devoted hockey fan (go Flames!). Being an astrophysicist has afforded me the ability to travel the world for conferences and workshops (I have been to five of seven continents now), and I try and carve out some time to experience local culture and cuisine wherever I travel. Lastly, I am currently working on French language lessons, with the goal of ultimately becoming bilingual.