David L. Nidever
Department of Astronomy
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia

Education

Pursuing Ph.D. in Astronomy, The University of Virginia.
M.S. in Astronomy, The University of Virginia, 2006. GPA 4.00.
B.A. in Philosophy, San Francisco State University, Summer 2000, GPA 3.31.
B.S. in Physics with Concentration in Astrophysics, San Francisco State University, Spring 2000, GPA 3.27.

Academic Achievements and Awards

Green Bank Telescope Student Support, The University of Virginia, 2006-2007.
Virginia Space Grant Consortium Fellowship, The University of Virginia, 2005-2008.
Achievement Rewards for College Scientists, The University of Virginia, 2005-2008.
President's Fellowship, The University of Virginia, 2004-2008.
Burr G. & Virginia G. Burbank Scholarship, San Francisco State University, 2000-2001.
Department of Defense Scholarship, San Francisco State University, 1999-2000.
Dean's List, San Francisco State University - 3 semesters, and California State University Fresno - 3 semesters.
Golden Key National Honor Society Scholar, California State University Fresno, 1996.

Research Experience

Exploring the Periphery of the Magellanic Clouds with Stars and HI Gas. Investigating the nature of the HI Magellanic Stream using the Leiden-Argentine-Bonn (LAB) all-sky HI survey. Studying the stellar halos of the Magellanic Clouds using photometry and spectroscopy. Performing computer simulations of the Magellanic Clouds to investigate the production of tidal debris. Dr. Steven R. Majewski and Dr. W. Butler Burton, Fall 2004 - present.
Calculating Absolute Radial Velocities for Stars in the California & Carnegie Planet Search Catalog. Developed and wrote software to derive absolute radial velocities for ~900 stars using the ~15,000 Keck and Lick digital stellar spectra previously obtained by the Extrasolar Planet Search Project. Dr. Geoffrey Marcy, Fall 2000 - Spring 2002; Dr. Debra Fischer, Fall 1999 - Summer 2000.
Observer for California & Carngie Planet Search at Lick Observatory. Obtained digital stellar spectra using the Coude Auxiliary Telescope and the Shane 120-inch telescope with the Hamilton Spectrograph. Drs. Geoffrey Marcy and Debra Fischer. May 1999 - December 1999.

Publications

"The Origin of the Magellanic Stream and Its Leading Arm", Nidever, D.L., Majewski, S.R., & Butler Burton, W. 2008, Astrophysical Journal, 679, 432.
"The ACS Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters: M54 and Young Populations in the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy", Siegel, M., Dotter, A., Majewski, S.R., Sarajedini, A., Chaboyer, B., Nidever, D.L., Anderson, J., Marin-Franch, A., Rosenberg, A., Bedin, L.R., Aparicio, A., King, I., Piotto, G., & Reid, I.N. 2007, Astrophysical Journal, 667, 57.
"Exploring Halo Substructure with Giant Stars: The Dynamics and Metallicity of the Dwarf Spheroidal in Bootes", Munoz, R.R., Carlin, J.L., Frinchaboy, P.M., Nidever, D.L., Majewski, S.R., and Patterson, R.J. 2006. Astrophysical Journal, 650, 51.
"Exploring Halo Substructure with Giant Stars. XI. The Tidal Tail of the Carina Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy and the Discovery of Magellanic Cloud Stars in the Carina Foreground", Munoz, R.R., Majewski, S.R., Zaggia, S., Kunkel, W.E., Frinchaboy, P.M., Nidever, D.L., Crnojevic, D., Patterson, R.J., Crane, J.D., Johnston, K.V., Sohn, S.T., Bernstein, R., and Shectman, S. 2006. Astrophysical Journal, 649, 201.
"Radial Velocities for 889 Late-type Stars", Nidever, D. L., Marcy, G. W., Butler, R. P., Fischer, D. A., and Vogt, S. S., 2002. Astrophysical Journal Supplement, 141, 503-522.
"Constraining the difference of convective blueshift between the components of alpha Cen with precise radial velocities", Pourbaix, D., Nidever, D., McCarthy, C., Butler, R. P., Tinney, C. G., Marcy, G. W., Jones, H. R. A., Penny, A. J., Carter, B. D., Bouchy, F., Pepe, F., Hearnshaw, J. B., Skuljan, J., Ramm, D., and Kent, D., 2002. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 386, 280-285.

Presentations

"New Discoveries in The Clouds", presented at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, La Serena, Chile, August 20, 2007.
"The Extended Population of the Large Magellanic Cloud", presented at the Elizabeth and Frederick White Conference on the Magellanic System in Epping, Australia, July 16, 2007.
"The Origin of the Magellanic Stream and Its Leading Arm", presented at Galaxies in the Local Volume conference in Sydney, Australia, July 13, 2007.
"The Origins of the Magellanic Stream and Its Leading Arm", Tuesday UVa/NRAO Astronomy (TUNA) lunch talk, Charlottesville, September 12, 2006.
"The Origins of the Magellanic Stream and Its Leading Arm", invited colloquium talk at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., July, 13, 2006.
"Tracking the Magellanic Stream(s): From Birthplace out to 100°", talk at the The Magellanic Clouds and dSph satellites: a nearby laboratory for galaxy evolution conference in Vienna, Austria, April 10-12, 2006.
"Tracking the Magellanic Stream(s)", poster presented at the Mass and Mystery in the Local Group conference in Cambridge, UK, July 17-20, 2005.
"Exploring the Magellanic Stream with Stars and HI Gas", presented at the NRAO Jansky Symposium, November 17, 2004.
"Attaining High Precision Absolute Radial Velocities", presented at the Physics & Astronomy Student Research Colloquium, May 2002 and May 2001.
"The Gettier Problem: Criticizing Defeasibility", presented at the Student Philosophy Symposium 2000, San Francisco State University, May 2000.

Proposals

"A New Component of the Large Magellanic Cloud: Stellar Halo or Tidal Debris?" with Dr. S.R. Majewski and R.R. Munoz. Time awarded - 10 nights on the 4-m telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile.
"Are There Young Stars in the Magellanic Stream", with Dr. Dr. S.R. Majewski, Dr. W.B. Burton and R.R. Munoz. Time awarded - 3 nights on the 1.5-m telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile.
"A New Component of the Large Magellanic Cloud: Stellar Halo or Tidal Debris?" with Dr. S.R. Majewski and R.R. Munoz. Time awarded - 5 nights on the 4-m telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile.
"HI Mapping of the Extended Magellanic Stream", with Dr. S.R. Majewski and Dr. W.B. Burton. Time awarded - 102 hours on the Green Bank Telescope, West Virginia.
"Reaching the edge of the Large Magellanic Cloud", with Dr. S.R. Majewski and R.R. Munoz. Time awarded - 8 nights on the 4-m telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile.

Computing Skills

Scientific Programming: 7 years experience using Interactive Data Language (IDL) in the UNIX environment. Wrote Gaussian Analysis software in IDL for astronomical datacubes. Created animations of various astronomical data. Wrote software in IRAF to clean spectra of cosmic rays. Developed data analysis programs and algorithms to derive precise absolute radial velocities from high resolution digital stellar spectra. Used IRAF for data reduction of multi-fiber spectra. Experience with C++ and Perl.
Website Development: 6 years experience developing and designing websites with HTML. Worked extensively with SQL and COLD FUSION along with HTML building a database driven business website.
Document Development: Journal paper, project reports, lecture notes, and handouts written in LATEX. Presentations developed with Powerpoint and Keynote.
Operating Systems: Many years experience with Windows 95/98/NT/XP and Macintosh operating systems. 8 years experience with the UNIX operating system.

Teaching Experience

English as a Second Language Teacher, Berlitz Budapest and Seven Sisters Austria, September 2002 July 2003. ESL teacher for middle and high school aged children in classroom setting. Also taught private and group classes for adults.
Science Teacher, Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth, Summer 2002. Developed curriculum for "Inventions" and "Science & Engineering" and taught classes to elementary and middle school students.
Private Tutor, March 2002 - June 2002. Mathematics tutor for students in middle school and high school.
Mathematics Teacher, AACE Upward Bound, San Francisco, Summer 2001. Developed curriculum for "Advanced Algebra & Trigonometry" and "Precalculus" and taught classes to high school students.
Instructor, San Francisco State University, Summer 2000, Fall 2000, Summer 2001. Instructor for "General Physics Laboratory" and "Introduction to Astronomy Laboratory."