Coe College student contributes to first peer-reviewed publication by MACRO Consortium
A Coe College junior has played a key role in a major milestone for the MACRO Consortium — a research alliance co-founded and led in part by Coe faculty. The first consortium-wide peer-reviewed paper has been accepted for publication in the prestigious Astrophysical Journal.
The research paper features Coe College student Walker Law ’27 as a co-author, highlighting the college's commitment to providing undergraduates with professional-level scientific opportunities.
A Model of Collaboration
The MACRO Consortium unites liberal arts colleges and major research universities in the Midwest. Together, they operate a fully robotic optical telescope in Sonoita, Arizona, giving students remote access to high-precision astronomical data.
"This achievement reflects the spirit of collaboration that defines MACRO," said Dr. James Wetzel, Coe College physics professor and consortium co-founder. "By connecting undergraduates at liberal arts colleges directly with major research institutions and facilities, we’re expanding what’s possible for student-driven discovery."
During the onsite visit, Law and the team were responsible for "waking up" the observatory for the season. This involved aligning mirrors, inspecting optics and calibrating the robotic control hardware that allows the telescope to be operated remotely from Iowa.
Scientific Breakthrough
The newly published paper reports findings on the rho Ophiuchi star formation complex, of which one star complex is a significantly brighter source of X-rays than previously thought, based on data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The study was led by Sean Gunderson, who is completing his postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The collaboration is already moving forward with new research. The team has manuscripts underway analyzing other stars in the complex, with more than a dozen targets scheduled for future investigation.
“Our students come back from Arizona with a different level of confidence,” Wetzel said. “They’ve aligned the mirrors, inspected optics, greased the gears and learned how data flows from a desert oasis to a research paper. It’s the kind of hands-on learning that defines Coe College.”