Observational Astronomy
Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Exploration in AstrophysicsWen-fai Fong
Professor Fong utilizes observations across the electromagnetic spectrum to study explosive transients and their host galaxy environments. These transients include gamma-ray bursts, electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave sources, compact object binaries, supernovae, and anything that collides or explodes.
David Meyer [Meyer personal page]
Professor Meyer's research specialty is the study of interstellar and extragalactic gas clouds through ultraviolet and optical absorption-line spectroscopy. Over the past several years, he has focused on problems involving the small-scale structure of the interstellar medium (ISM) and the elemental abundance patterns of the Galactic ISM and quasar absorption-line systems.
Raffaella Margutti
Professor Margutti utilizes observations of transient astrophysical phenomena including stellar explosions and stellar tidal disruptions by supermassive black holes. Her research specifically focuses on the biggest explosions and disruptions that occur in our Universe: Supernovae, Gamma-Ray Bursts, compact stellar mergers and tidal disruption events. She investigates the physics of these events by combining broad-band observations across the electromagnetic spectrum, including X-ray, UV, optical, IR, and radio. The primary goal of her research is to understand the nature of the physical processes that regulate such dramatic displays.
Giles Novak
Professor Novak observes the polarization of infrared and sub-millimeter thermal emission from magnetically aligned interstellar dust grains. The resulting magnetic field maps are being used to determine the role of magnetic fields in diverse environments such as the Galactic center, giant molecular clouds, and star-forming regions. Email Giles Novak
Mel Ulmer
Professor Mel Ulmer's research concentrates on the formation and evolution of clusters of galaxies using X-ray, optical, and infrared observations. Of particular interest are the physical characteristics of the intracluster gas, the possible existence of cooling flows and the X-ray and gamma-ray observations of pulsars.
Farhad Yusef-Zadeh
Professor Yusef-Zadeh uses radio, infrared and X-ray telescopes to study a variety of topics related to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. In particular, he uses the VLA and ALMA to monitor flaring activity of the supermassive black hole, known as Sgr A*, and the consequences of cosmic rays interacting with the gas in the nucleus of our galaxy. In addition, he studies how star formation occurs near Sgr A* where it is generally presumed to be suppressed by strong tidal forces in the vicinity of the supermassive black holes.