Department of Astronomy

Nickolas Pingel received his B.Sc. in Astronomy and Physics from the University of Wisconsin—Madison in 2013 and Ph.D. from West Virginia University in 2018. After his graduate studies, he was a postdoctoral research at Australian National University in Canberra from 2018 until 2022. He then returned to UW-Madison as a research scientist in 2022 before joining the IU astronomy department as a visiting assistant professor in Fall 2025. 

Dr. Pingel’s research centers on the physics of the interstellar medium (ISM)—the gas and dust that fill the space between stars. His work focuses on two key areas: (a) diagnosing the thermodynamic properties of the multi-phase ISM that regulate local star formation in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, and (b) characterizing ISM turbulence and identifying its primary energy injection mechanisms.

Dr. Pingel is a co–Principal Investigator of the Galactic ASKAP Survey of Atomic Hydrogen (GASKAP-HI), which uses cutting-edge radio telescopes in the Southern Hemisphere to create high-resolution maps of hydrogen gas in the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds. He also leads efforts within the Local Group L-Band Survey (LGLBS), developing supercomputer pipelines to process data from the Very Large Array and extends a hirgh-resolution view to key Local Group members such as the Andromeda galaxy.

By applying novel statistical analysis techniques with the data products produced from his processing pipelines, his work delivers new insights into the ISM and also lays the foundation for the next generation of radio astronomy with facilities like the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and the Next Generation VLA (ngVLA).