Will Armentrout

At my core, I am an observational astronomer, and I have been primary investigator for projects on three telescopes— Green Bank Telescope (GBT), Very Large Array (VLA), and Gemini Observatory North. I have many hundreds of hours of hands-on observing experience with the GBT, and I have prepared target lists for dozens of distinct projects, comprising thousands of hours of observations.

Though the bulk of my training is in radio astronomy, I actively sought out involvement with optical and infrared instruments in an effort to broaden my research horizons and study Galactic star formation across the electromagnetic spectrum. From single-dish mapping and individual pointings with the GBT to interferometric observations with the VLA to optical observations on Maunakea, I have a breadth of experience across astronomy.

As an astronomer at the Green Bank Observatory, I serve as lead for astronomer training programs, undergraduate and graduate student education programs, bistatic RADAR observations, and 20-meter telescope development. I also have my own guaranteed research time and support a variety of other programs around the observatory.

Outside of this work, I am a Space Operations Officer with the United States Air Force, supporting a Space Force mission, at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs. I received my commission in September 2022.

Since 2020, I've given more than 35 public talks to over 1,200 people in 5 states and 3 countries. I've talked with students from 3rd grade through college, libraries, Kiwanis Clubs, professional business organizations, and more. I have also presented professional talks at observatories, universities, and research centers across the world, from Europe to Africa to South America. Reach out to discuss how we can incorporate astronomy into your next meeting or class!

My research focuses mainly on Galactic high-mass star formation and Galactic structure. Throughout graduate school and my postdoctoral training, I worked with several teams to provide a complete census of Galactic HII regions. HII regions are areas of hot, ionized gas surrounding stars 10x or more massive than our Sun. They can be seen across the entire Galaxies at radio wavelengths and are tracers of Milky Way spiral arms and other features of our home Galaxy.

This work spans from the most distant areas of high-mass star formation in our Galaxy (the Outer Scutum-Centaurus Arm, OSC) to the faintest population of B-stars still able to produce a detectable HII region. Since high-mass stars form preferentially in spiral arms and have exceedingly short lifetimes compared to the age of our Galaxy, completing the census of Galactic HII regions also gives us a global picture of the current structure and high-mass star formation within the Milky Way.

My postdoctoral position in Green Bank was 50% individual research, 50% service to the observatory.

My science time focused on the Observatory's increased high-frequency observing capabilities (up to frequencies of 116 GHz). My current work with the Green Bank Telescope involves molecular gas observations of the Milky Way's most distant star formation regions with the Argus instrument. Argus, a 16-beam array operating from 74-116 GHz allows fast mapping of CO, HCN, HCO+ and many other molecular and dense gas tracers.

My service time varied from training visiting observer on site, assisting with visioning the next decade+ of Green Bank science for the Astro2020 Decadal Review, and testing and developing instrumentation.

My siblings and I are working to redevelop property in our hometown of Ford City, Pennsylvania. We're poetically incorporated as Constellations, LLC. The stars in a constellation are linked only by human imagination. Together, we are helping to revitalize our Rust Belt town and bring these 100+ year old beauties back to their former glory.