Prof. Sterling grew up in St. Paul, MN and attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he earned a double B.S. in physics-astronomy and mathematics. He received a Ph. D. in astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin, and has had postdoctoral fellowships at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Michigan State University. He taught physics at Valparaiso University (Indiana) before joining the University of West Georgia in August 2013. 

Research Interests 

Prof. Sterling studies planetary nebulae, the gaseous ejecta of dying low-mass stars (1-8 times the Sun’s mass). He uses spectroscopy to study the chemical composition of planetary nebulae, in order to understand how elements are formed in low-mass stars. From observations with 3−10 meter telescopes in the US, Chile, and Spain, he has discovered and analyzed emission lines from some of the rarest elements in the Universe, including selenium, krypton, rubidium, cadmium, tellurium and xenon. In addition to his observational research, Prof. Sterling studies the atomic properties of heavy element ions via state-of-the-art computer calculations and (previously) experimental measurements conducted at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 

His research is currently funded by two NSF grants: one to investigate how atomic ions capture electrons (a process called recombination) in astrophysical plasmas, and a second that involves observations of planetary nebulae in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies in order to study the production of heavy elements (atomic number Z > 30) in the Universe with unprecedented precision and accuracy.  In 2023-2024, Prof. Sterling has been awarded time on the 8.1-meter Gemini South and 6.5-m Baade Telescopes in Chile, the 3.0-m NASA Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii, and the 10-m Hobby Eberly Telescope in Texas to study the spectra of planetary nebulae. He is also actively involved in four James Webb Space Telescope programs.

UWG undergraduate students play key roles in this research, and Dr. Sterling encourages students interested in astronomy or atomic physics research to contact him. He is proud to supervise several undergraduate research students each year, most of whom present research results at state and/or national conferences.