Astronomy Faculty Research

Contents

The Astronomy Department has active research in several areas: The faculty and staff members and their specific research areas are listed below. More detailed information can be found on their home pages, available by following the links on their names.

John F. Hawley, Chair and VITA Prof., Ph.D. Illinois:
      Computational astrophysics, accretion disks
Philip L. Arras, VITA Asst. Prof., Ph.D. Cornell:
      MHD, accretion disks, compact objects
Jeffrey S. Bary, NSF Post Doc., Ph.D. Vanderbilt:
      Star formation, IR spectroscopy, education and public outreach
Kris Beckwith, VITA Post Doc., Ph.D. Durham:
      Accretion Disks, general relativity, computational astrophysics
Gregory Black, Res. Sci., Ph.D. Cornell:
      Planetary science, moons and satellites
Poonam Chandra, Jansky Post Doc., Ph.D. Indian Institute of Science/TFIR:
      Supernovae, gamma ray bursts
Roger A. Chevalier, Vanderbilt Prof., Ph.D. Princeton:
      Supernovae, gas dynamics
Alin A. Constandache, Post Doc., Ph.D. Rochester:
      Gamma ray bursts, relativistic computational fluid dynamics
Laurence W. Fredrick, Prof. Emeritus, Ph.D. Pennsylvania:
      Astrometry, space astronomy, instrumentation
Amalia Hicks, Post Doc., Ph.D. Colorado:
      X-ray astronomy, clusters of galaxies, large scale structure formation
Philip A. Ianna, Prof. Emeritus, Ph.D. Ohio State:
      Parallaxes, white dwarfs, Ba stars, low luminosity stars
Rémy Indebetouw, Spitzer Post Doc., Ph.D. Colorado:
      Star Formation, the ISM
Adrienne M. Juett, Post Doc., Ph.D. MIT:
      X-ray astronomy, X-ray binaries, the ISM
Robert E. Johnson, Newcomb Prof. Eng. Phys. (resident), Ph.D. Wisconsin:
      Dust grains, sputtering processes, planetary rings and magnetospheres
Kelsey E. Johnson, Asst. Prof., Ph.D. Colorado:
      Star formation at high redshift
Shiv S. Kumar, Assoc. Prof. Emeritus, Ph.D. Michigan:
      Origin and evolution of the solar system, degenerate stars
Zhi-Yun Li, Assoc. Prof., Ph.D. Colorado:
      Interstellar medium, star formation, active galaxies
Steven R. Majewski, Prof., Ph.D. Chicago:
      Galactic structure and evolution, quasars, deep surveys, astrometry, instrumentation
Sean Matt, Levinson/VITA Post Doc., Ph.D. Washington:
      Accretion disks, outflows
David McDavid, Res. Sci., Ph.D. Amsterdam:
      Emission line stars, polarimetry, instrumentation
Edward M. Murphy, Assoc. Prof., Ph.D. Virginia:
      Galactic structure, interstellar medium, high velocity clouds, UV and radio astronomy
Matthew J. Nelson, Levinson Res. Sci., Ph.D. Arizona:
      Instrumentation, pulsars, white dwarfs
Robert W. O'Connell, Hamilton Prof., Ph.D. Caltech:
      Extragalactic astronomy, space astronomy
Richard J. Patterson, Senior Sci., Ph.D. Virginia:
      Galactic structure, astrometry, dwarf galaxies
Dawn E. Peterson, Levinson Post Doc., Ph.D. Rochester:
      Star formation, brown dwarfs, young stellar clusters
Robert T. Rood, Prof., Ph.D. MIT:
      Stellar evolution, nucleosynthesis
Craig L. Sarazin, Vanderbilt Prof., Ph.D. Princeton:
      Interstellar medium, X-ray astronomy, clusters of galaxies
William C. Saslaw, Prof., Ph.D. Cambridge:
      Cosmology, radio galaxies, stellar dynamics
Ricardo P. Schiavon, Post Doc., Ph.D. São Paulo:
      Globular clusters, stellar evolution
P. Kenneth Seidelmann, Res. Prof., Ph.D. Cincinnati:
      Astrometry, solar system astronomy, celestial mechanics
Michael F. Skrutskie, Prof., Ph.D. Cornell:
      Infrared instrumentation, sky surveys (2MASS), Galactic structure and stellar populations, low mass stars and brown dwarfs.
Trinh X. Thuan, Prof., Ph.D. Princeton:
      Extragalactic astronomy, evolution of galaxies, observational cosmology
Charles R. Tolbert, Prof., Ph.D. Vanderbilt:
      Galactic structure, photometry, 21-cm radio astronomy
Anne Verbiscer, Res. Sci., Ph.D. Cornell:
      Photometric properties of planetary ices
Mark Whittle, Prof., Ph.D. Cambridge:
      Active galaxies, star formation in galaxies
John Wilson, Levinson Res. Sci., Ph.D. Cornell:
      Infrared instrumentation, brown dwarfs

In addition to the staff members of our department, there are many other scientists in Charlottesville active in astronomically-oriented research. Besides contributing to the level and diversity of astronomical research here, they are readily available to students for consultation and thesis advising.

The following scientists hold adjunct professorships in the Astronomy Department (except where noted, the primary affiliation is NRAO):

Timothy S. Bastian, Ph.D. Colorado:
      Solar radio astronomy
James Braatz, Ph.D. Maryland:
      Cosmic masers, Cosmology, AGNs
Richard F. Bradley, Ph.D. Virginia:
      Microwave instrumentation, semiconductors
Alan H. Bridle, Ph.D. Cambridge:
      Extragalactic radio sources
Crystal Brogan, Ph.D. Kentucky:
      Star formation, SNR/molecular cloud interactions, the inner Galaxy
W. Butler Burton (email), Ph.D. Leiden:
      HI, HVCs, Galactic Structure, Molecular Clouds
Christopher Carilli, Ph.D. M.I.T.:
      Epoch of Reionization
James J. Condon, Ph.D. Cornell:
      Radio galaxies, quasars
William D. Cotton, Ph.D. Texas:
      Radio galaxies, extragalactic radio astronomy
Robert L. Dickman (NSF), Ph.D. Columbia:
      Molecular Clouds
J. Richard Fisher, Ph.D. Maryland:
      Radio astronomy, radio instrumentation, galaxies
Edward B. Fomalont (email), Ph.D. Caltech:
      Radio astronomy
Eileen D. Friel (NSF), Ph.D. California-Santa Cruz:
      Open star clusters, Galactic astronomy
Jay A. Frogel (AURA), Ph.D. Caltech:
      IR, star formation, Extragalactic astronomy, Globular Clusters
John E. Hibbard, Ph.D. Columbia:
      Extragalactic astronomy, galaxy interactions
David E. Hogg, Ph.D. Toronto:
      Strong radio sources
Gareth Hunt,
      Computing and Networking for Radio astronomy
Philip R. Jewell, Ph.D. Illinois:
      Molecular astronomy, Masers
Kenneth I. Kellermann (email), Ph.D. Caltech:
      Very long baseline interferometry
Anthony R. Kerr, Ph.D. Melbourne:
      Microwave electronics
Harvey S. Liszt, Ph.D. Princeton:
      Interstellar medium, molecules
Fred K. Y. Lo (email), Ph.D. MIT:
      Instrumentation, galactic and extragalactic astronomy, cosmic microwave background, masers
Jeffrey G. Mangum, Ph.D. Virginia:
      Interstellar medium, molecules
Brian S. Mason, Ph.D. Pennsylvania:
      GBT instrumentation
Patrick P. Murphy, Ph.D. Dublin IAS:
      AIPS
Shing-Kuo Pan (email), Ph.D. Columbia:
      Receiver electronics
Marian W. Pospieszalski (email), Ph.D. Warsaw:
      Microwave electronics
Scott M. Ransom, Ph.D. Harvard:
      Pulsars
Morton S. Roberts (email), Ph.D. U. C. Berkeley:
      Neutral hydrogen in galaxies
Barry E. Turner, Ph.D. U. C. Berkeley:
      Interstellar molecules
Juan M. Uson, Ph.D. Madrid:
      Extragalactic radio astronomy, cosmology
Paul A. Vanden Bout (email), Ph.D. U. C. Berkeley:
      Interstellar medium, molecules
John C. Webber (email), Ph.D. Caltech:
      Radio astronomy and instrumentation
H. Alwyn Wootten, Ph.D. Texas:
      Molecular clouds
Qi-feng Yin, Ph.D. Beijing:
      Supernovae, starbursts

There are typically several postdoctoral fellows at NRAO as well as many visiting astronomers who stay for times ranging from a few days up to a year. Other Charlottesville-area astronomers and scientists with strong interests in astronomy include:

Peter Arnold, Physics:
      Baryogenesis in the Early Universe
Jeffrey Hesler, Electrical Engineering:
      Infrared detectors
Alan Howard, Environmental Sciences:
      Planetary atmospheres
Pham Q. Hung, Physics:
      Fundamental particle physics and cosmology
Stephen Macko, Environmental Sciences:
      Amino acid content and isotopic abundances in meteorites
William W. Roberts, Jr., Applied Mathematics, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering:
      Galactic dynamics