SIGNATURE EVENTS AND PROGRAMS
The Villanova One Sky Center works to be a central resource for astrophysics exploration and learning in the community, offering colloquia, programming, and opportunities for students for professional development and self-enrichment..
STUDENT WORKSHOPS
Villanova One Sky Center hosts educational events for Villanova undergrad students and undergrad students from local colleges/universities.
On Friday, September 18th, the Villanova One Sky Center for Astrophysicshosted a free, hands-on workshop led by NASA experts from the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) and hosted by the Villanova One Sky Center for Astrophysics.
Students learned how astronomers access and analyze real observations from NASA’s high-energy astrophysics mission, including an introduction to HEASARC and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, followed by an accessible introduction to Python and the browser-based Jupyter environment available through NASA’s Fornax Science Console.
Attendance for the event was over 50 students (the room was overflowing) from Villanova, Kutztown University, Wilmington University, and others.
Villanova One Sky Center co-sponsors the annual PHOEBE workshop. PHOEBE (PHysics Of Eclipsing BinariEs), the industrey-standard software for modeling binary star systems, is developed at Villanov aUniversity in collaboration with an international team of scientists and developers.
We co-hosted a hands-on data workshop in partnership with NASA's Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST), the TESS Mission, and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in September 2025. The workshop gave 40 students and researchers from eight institutions — Villanova, Brookdale Community College, Kutztown University, the University of Delaware, Haverford College, Delaware State University, Rutgers University, and Wilmington University — direct access to NASA mission data and archives. Nine students gave lightning talks on their research. Exit survey results confirmed the workshop's strong impact on participants. The success of this event inspired us to continue hosting these student-focused workshops, and subsequent workshops are listed on this page.
In addition to the many workshops we have organized or hosted for the benefit of our students and those at universities, we also host two other reoccurring events focused on building comradery and community among the Astronomy and Physics majors and minors around Villanova. The first of these is WAGMIP (Women and Gender Minorities in Physics), a free off-campus luncheon event for students who self-identify as such or their allies to discuss issues of common interest, form friendship, and identify areas in which the university and our two departments can improve. The second is our annual off-campus community building trip, the first of which was a trip to the Franklin Museum to help the students relax a bit before finals in April 2026.
Center Director
Kelly Hambleton Prša
kelly.prsa@villanova.edu