Bill Janesh

As we open the new academic year, CWRU Astronomy is very pleased to welcome our newest member: Astronomy Instructor Bill Janesh. If the name seems familiar, that’s because Bill is one of our own, having graduated from CWRU in 2011 with a BS in Astronomy. From there, Bill went on to do a Masters in Library Science at Kent State, before going on to Indiana University to pursue a doctoral degree in Astronomy. In August 2018, Bill finished his PhD work at Indiana and has now joined CWRU Astronomy as an Instructor of Astronomy.

Bill’s research interests include searches for the faintest satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, and the study of their stellar populations. He also is an expert on the connection between dwarf galaxies and the population of compact high velocity clouds found in the Milky Way’s halo.

This fall, Bill is teaching “Introduction to Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe”, a general education course designed for students to survey a wide variety of astronomy at a non-technical level. In future semesters he will also lead technical courses for astronomy and physics majors.

In addition to his teaching contributions to the department, Bill will also help support the research and computational needs of the CWRU Astronomy community, as well as continuing his own research into the satellite galaxy population of the Milky Way.