About Me

Hello! I'm Julian Falcone, a postdoctoral researcher working with Dr. Enrique Lopez-Rodriguez in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of South Carolina. I received my PhD from Georgia State University, where my research with Dr. Mike Crenshaw specialized in active galactic nuclei (AGN) outflows and feedback processes.

In my free time, I enjoy watching movies and knitting. I am also passionate about issues related to community and labor justice, and as a graduate student I contributed significantly to building Georgia State Universtity's campus workers union.

I'm happy to talk about research and anything else I mention on my website. Feel free to shoot me an email at jfalcone2 [at] sc.edu !

My Research

    At the center of every galaxy is a supermassive black hole (SMBH) that can have the mass of over 1 billion Suns. An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a supermassive black hole that is actively feeding from an accretion disk rotating at very high speeds around it. As material is falling from the accretion disk into the SMBH, enormous amounts of radiation is released, which is often bright enough to rival the luminosity of the entire galaxy. This radiation both ionizes the gas in the surrounding narrow-line region (NLR) and pushes it away from the SMBH, creating a feedback process in the form of AGN outflows. I study the kinematics of the ionized, near-IR, and molecular outflows in the galaxy NGC 3227 to further understand the interplay between these outflows and the host galaxy.

    Some of the techniques I use in my research involve the reduction and analysis of the Kitt Peak Ohio State Multi-Object Spectrograph (KOSMOS) at Apache Point Observatory (APO), where I currently have over 150 hours of observing experience. I have significant experience with spectral fitting analysis, and have been contributing to a Gaussian fitting routine called BEAT since 2023. I currently help maintain the documentation.

    My first paper was published in Summer 2024. It focuses on characterizing the kinematics of the ionized, warm molecular, and cold molecular gas observations for NGC 3227, which results in the determination of the biconical outflow orienation (pictured in the figure to the right) and a velocity law for the ionized outflows. You can find the link here, or you can read my summary of it here. I was also invited to speak about my paper on the Starts With a Bang podcast, and you can listen to that here.

    My second study is an expansion of the first, still focusing on the outflows in NGC 3227. In this work, we quantify spatially-resolved mass outflow rates in three gas phases (cold molecular, warm molecular, and ionized) and apply it to the molecular gas reservoirs around the SMBH to estimate the evacuation timescales of the reservoirs. This study was published in January 2026 and you can read it here.

    I defended my PhD at Georgia State University in April 2026. You can see a recording of the talk here. If you don't have 50 minutes to spare (and in this economy, who does?), you can watch an abbreviated version of my defense here.

Outreach & Teaching

    From 2021 - 2025, I was a Graduate Lead in the Georgia Outreach Team for Space (or GOT Space), an outreach program affiliated with Georgia State University, the Georgia Space Grant Consortium, the National Science Foundation, Georgia Institute of Technology, and a few other universities. As a lead organizer, some of my responsibilities include coordinating outreach events with educators, partaking in outreach events (which you can see in the image on the left!), and overseeing the content to be presented at outreach events. In 2024, GOT Space launched Astro on Tap Atlanta, which is a satellite of the broader Astro on Tap initiative. These monthly events bring in 50-100 adults from around the metro Atlanta to a local tavern to hear about astronomy, and has become the tavern's most popular recurring event.

    GOT Space was awarded a $30,000 grant to host AsTropaLooza: An Astronomy of ATL Showcase, which was a 4-day event that occurred in June 2025. As a Co-I of this proposal, my primary responsibilities involved coordinating the various parties of volunteers and participating institutions, communicating with interested Atlanta-area educators, designing our publicity materials, and facilitating the activities themselves. We engaged hundreds of K-12 children over these events, and intentionally worked to make AsTropaLooza accessible to underserved communities by providing $100 rideshare vouchers upon request to several families.

    I also have a passion for teaching, which I was able to nurture during my time at GSU. I TA'd a total of 15 introductory astronomy lab classes, over which time I was able to grow my skills as an educator, especially towards non-majors. Oftentimes, the quest for good grades can put students at odds with their physical or mental health, or with other obligations such as family care or work. I've spent a lot of time crafting policies for my lab classes that don't require students to make sacrifices, meaning they can prioritize their immediate needs and still succeed in the lab class. For the Fall 2025 semester, I was the instructor of record for one class of ASTR 1010: Astronomy of the Solar System, an introductory class for non-majors. I chose to pursue this opportunity to further strengthen my pedagogical and organizational skills within an academic context, and as I move forward throughout my career, I intend to continue to learn and grow as an educator with an emphasis on accessibility for all.