Astronomy and Astrophysics

2018-19 General Catalog

Astronomy Department Office
269 Interdisciplinary Sciences Building
(831) 459-3081
http://www.astro.ucsc.edu

Program Statement | Course Descriptions

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Faculty and Professional Interests

Professor

George R. Blumenthal
Cosmology, galaxy formation, high-energy astrophysics

Frank D. Drake, Emeritus

John Faulkner, Emeritus

Jonathan Fortney
Planetary atmospheres and interiors, extrasolar planets

Douglas N. C. Lin
Fluid dynamics, star formation, galactic structure, planetary systems, accretion disks, extra-solar planets

Piero Madau
Cosmology, high-energy astrophysics

Bruce H. Margon, Emeritus

William G. Mathews, Emeritus Research Professor

Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz
Stellar explosions, jet and accretion physics, compact binaries and gravitational waves

Stanford E. Woosley, Emeritus

Associate Professor

Ruth Murray-Clay
Extrasolar planets, formation and evolution of planetary systems, gravitational dynamics, atmospheric evolution, the Kuiper belt, protoplanetary disks

Brant Robertson
Galaxy formation, dark matter, hydrodynamics, numerical simulation methodologies

Assistant Professor

Ryan Foley
Transient astrophysics, cosmology, survey science and big data

Alexie Leauthaud
Cosmology, galaxy formation, weak gravitational lensing

Andrew Skemer
Extrasolar planets, brown dwarfs, astronomical instrumentation, adaptive optics

Professor/Astronomer

Peter H. Bodenheimer, Emeritus

Michael J. Bolte
Dynamics of star clusters, ages of star clusters, chemical enrichment history of the galaxy, observations of interacting galaxies

Jean P. Brodie
Extragalactic globular clusters, galaxy formation, near-field cosmology

Harland W. Epps, Emeritus

Sandra M. Faber, Emeritus

Puragra (Raja) GuhaThakurta
Galaxy formation and evolution: resolved stellar populations in the Local Group and distant galaxies. Globular clusters. Interstellar dust.

Garth D. Illingworth, Emeritus

Burton F. Jones, Emeritus

David C. Koo, Emeritus

Claire E. Max, Professor and Director of UC Observatories
Adaptive optics observations of nearby merging galaxies, new adaptive optics technologies

Joseph S. Miller, Emeritus

J. Xavier Prochaska
Damped Lya systems in quasars, Lyman limit systems, stellar abundances, thick disk imaging of our galaxy

Constance Rockosi
Galactic structure, stellar populations, CCD detectors, astronomical instrumentation

Graeme H. Smith
Stellar populations, chromospheric activity among late-type stars

Steven S. Vogt, Emeritus

Merle F. Walker, Emeritus

Astronomer

Lloyd B. Robinson, Emeritus

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Professor

Anthony N. Aguirre (Physics)
Cosmology of the very early universe, inflation and the global structure of cosmological models, gravitation and black holes, foundations of quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics, information theory

Ian Garrick-Bethell, (Earth and Planetary Sciences)
Planetary interiors, paleomagnetism

Nic Brummel (Applied Mathematics and Statistics)
Fluid dynamics;magnetohydrodynamics; numerical simulations of geophysical and astrophysical dynamics, especially solar interior physics; supercomputing

Pascale Garaud (Applied Mathematics and Statistics)
Astrophysical and geophysical fluid dynamics, magnetohydrodynamics; analytical and numerical solutions of partial differential equations related to these phenomena

Francis Nimmo (Earth and Planetary Sciences)
Icy satellites, accretion, Mars, planetary geophysics

Joel R. Primack, Emeritus (Physics)
Cosmology, the nature of dark matter and dark energy, large scale structure of the universe, galaxy formation and evolution, and use of machine learning for these topics

Stefano Profumo (Physics)
Theory of particle physics and particle astrophysics

Steven Ritz (Physics)
Particle physics and astrophysics

David M. Smith (Physics)
High-energy astrophysics; X-ray and gamma-ray detectors and instrumentation; solar, terrestrial, and planetary sources of gamma radiation

Associate Professor

Tesla Jeltema
Cosmology, observational high energy astrophysics, particle astrophysics; research focuses on observational cosmology and particle astrophysics, including constraints on the nature of dark matter and dark energy and studies of the evolution of galaxies; formation and evolution of large-scale structure in the universe using observations covering a broad wavelength range and numerical simulations

Research Astronomer

Donald Gavel, Emeritus

Brad Holden
Design, development, and oversight of UC Astronomy Data Center (all data obtained by UC astronomers at the Lick and Keck Observatories), early evolution of elliptical galaxies

Robert Kibrick, Emeritus

Drew Phillips
Extragalactic star-formation, gas-phase abundances, galaxy kinematics, and galaxy formation and evolutions; development of astronomical optics and instrumentation

Richard Stover
Development and construction of state-of-the-art detector systems for instruments at Lick Observatory and the Keck Observatory

Revised: 07/15/18